The Times/1940/Obituary/Arthur Harden

DISTINGUISHED BIOCHEMIST

Sir Arthur Harden, F.R.S., late head of the Biochemical Department of the List Institute, and Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry, London University, died at Sunnyholme, Bourne End, yesterday. In 1929 the Nobel Prize for chemistry was divided between him and Professor von Euler, of Stockholm. In 1935 he was awarded Davy Medal of the Royal Society for his distinguished works in biochemistry, and especially for his fundamental discoveries in the chemistry of alcoholic fermentation.

Born at Moss Side, Manchester in 1865 Arthur Harden was educated at Victoria Park School, Manchester, at Tettenhall College, Staffordshire, and at Owens College, Manchester. In 1886 he was Dalton Research scholar. He was appointed lecturer and demonstrator in chemistry at Owens College from 1888 to 1897, before going to London University. He discovered in 1906 that the fermentation of sugar depended on a specific activator which was not an enzyme and the presence of which was essential to the process. Phosphates, he also discovered, were an equally necessary factor in fermentation. From 1913 to 1937 he was joint editor of the Biochemical Journal, and he had published numerous scientific works dealing with his subject. He married Georgina Sydney, daughter of Mr. C. Wynyard Bridge, of Christchurch, New Zealand. She died in 1928.