Obituary notices

Abstract

Harold Baily Dixon, whose work upon gaseous explosions opened a new era in combustion research, was born in London on August 11, 1852, the second son of William Hepworth Dixon (1821-79), traveller and historical writer, who for some years was editor of the Athenœum . Although the family came of an old Lancashire Puritan stock, the Dixons of Heaton Royds, the grandfather of the chemist was Abner Dixon of Holmfirth and Kirkburton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and his grandmother was Mary Cryer of those parts. His father, William Hepworth Dixon, who was born in 1821, at Great Ancoats in Manchester, began life as a clerk in that city; but early resolving to adopt literature as a career, he became associated with a group of literary men, including Harrison Ainsworth, who were working in Manchester in early Victorian days. In 1846, at the instance of his friend Douglas Jerrold, he migrated to London; and, having early married a lively good-looking Irish girl, Marion MacMahon, they had eight children, of whom Harold Baily (second son) and Ella Hepworth (youngest daughter) achieved distinction in science and literature respectively.