Peter Godwin Embrey (1929–2010)

Abstract

Peter Embrey passed away on 24th December 2010 at Charing Cross hospital. He was an inspiration to many of those who knew him and especially to those who worked with him and formed part of his team at the British Museum (Natural History) now the Natural History Museum, London. Classically educated, he was revered as a fount of knowledge on historical, taxonomic and topographic mineralogy and crystallography. He was a noted bibliophile and built up a vast collection of books on crystallography, mineralogy, scientific instruments, the history of science, the geology and mining history of southwest England, mathematics and computing. He was fascinated by the craftsmanship and development of scientific instruments and in their practical use in mineral optics and goniometry, and also kept up with the latest developments in computational methods until well into his retirement. In respecting the contributions made to science by amateur mineralogists and the collecting fraternity, Peter was at the forefront in the development of the National Collection of Minerals, partly through encouraging donations from his many contacts and also through a series of exchanges at a time of low or non-existent acquisitions budgets. Peter Godwin Embrey was born on 31 January 1929 in Edgbaston, Birmingham into a family that was well known at the time for its bakery business in Stoke-on-Trent. He was educated at Denstone College preparatory school and then at Oundle school in Northamptonshire, where he developed a strong interest in mathematics and science, before going up to Oriel College, Oxford University, in 1947, to read chemistry and mineralogy. His tutor at Oriel was the famous research chemist Dalziel Hammick FRS who had a lasting influence on him. At Oxford, he met Arthur Kingsbury who had just been appointed Research Assistant in the University Museum and Peter wrote: “It was at this …