Joseph Arthur Arkwright, 1864 - 1944

Joseph Arthur Arkwright, whose death occurred on 22 November 1944, at King’s College Hospital, London, was a distinguished bacteriologist. He did not commence the serious study of bacteriology until he was forty-two years of age but he brought to it an uncommon mental outfit. Since boyhood he had been keenly interested in natural history and he acquired a sound knowledge of biological principles at Cambridge where he devoted most of his time to the study of zoology and botany. After graduating in medicine, he practised his profession for fifteen years and gained a wide experience of disease. By the time he came to devote himself to scientific investigation he had a full mind, and the philosophic insight which he brought to the interpretation of his observations was characteristic of his researches. Arkwright, born 22 March 1864, was the youngest of the five children of Arthur William Arkwright, a gentleman-farmer of Broughton Hall, Astley, Leicestershire, and his second cousin Emma, daughter of John Wolley of Breston, Nottinghamshire. His mother died when he was two years old and he was cared for by an aunt until his eldest sister Helen was old enough to look after him. Helen and he were the greatest friends and it was she who imbued him with his intense and abiding interest in natural history.