CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

John Cadogan

British chemist

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ6224716
Source-derived summary

Sir John Ivan George Cadogan (8 October 1930 – 9 February 2020) was a British organic chemist and Director General of the Research Councils until 1998.

Early life

Cadogan was born in Pembrey, Carmarthenshire, Wales, United Kingdom. He was educated at Swansea Grammar School, where he achieved State Scholar in 1948, and at King's College London, where he earned a 1st Class Honours degree as well as a PhD, and was awarded the Millar Thomson Medal, and the Samuel Smiles Prize.

Interests

Cadogan was particularly interested in the popularisation of science. He calculated that he had given live lecture demonstrations to over 10,000 school children and many more via television. He took part in the first live satellite telecast from London to New Zealand, at which time he treasured the sight of more TV vans outside the Royal Institution than even outside the Arms Park for a Wales-England match. He was a Liveryman of the Salters' Company and a director of the Salters' Institute whose considerable charitable works are dedicated to the improvement of teaching of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. He was a Freeman of the City of London.

Positions and memberships

From 1979 to 2002, he was Visiting Professor of Chemistry at Imperial College, London, and from 1979 to 2007, he was an Honorary Professorial Fellow in Chemistry at the University of Wales, Swansea. He was a Science Policy Advisor to the Science Foundation, Ireland, from its inception until 2006.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “John Cadogan” as british chemist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Cadogan and British.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1930, 2020, 1998, 1948—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1930-10-08. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with John, Cadogan and British providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “John Cadogan”, the useful work is to connect “british chemist” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6224716. VIAF identifies the subject as 34517219. The Library of Congress control number is nr91010645. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930, 2020, 1998 and 1948.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “John Cadogan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John Cadogan primary sources, John Cadogan archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John Cadogan”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from John Cadogan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.