Pender Chair

"Telegraphs"
Pender as caricatured by James Tissot in Vanity Fair, October 1871

The Pender Chair is the post that is generally held by the head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering of University College London.

John Pender (pictured in the caricature on the right), the founder of Cable and Wireless, died in 1896. The Pender Memorial Committee was formed, and collected £6,277 in his memorial. Of this, they decided to donate £5,000 to the Department of Electrical Technology of University College, to enable an expansion of its facilities. This included the founding of the Pender Laboratory, and the inauguration of the Pender Chair.

The Department of Electrical Technology had already been formed some years earlier, in 1885, with John Ambrose Fleming (pictured below) as its head. He, therefore, became the first incumbent of the Pender Chair of Electrical Engineering.

The following references can be found, in the Council Minutes:[1]

Pender Professors of Electrical Engineering at UCL

References

  1. Council Minutes (2 November 1895, 25 November 1895, 5 December 1896, 9 January 1897), University College London.
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