Roscoe, Henry Enfield (1833–1915)

British chemist. He was professor of chemistry at Owens College, Manchester, (1857–87). With Thomas Henry Huxley and John Tyndall he gave a series of talks entitles ‘Science Lectures for the People’. Roscoe represented a Manchester constituency in Parliament (1885–95). He was vice-chancellor of London University (1896–1902). Roscoe researched vanadium and was the first to obtain the metal in a pure state. He was joint author of Treatise on Chemistry (1877–84).

Roscoe was born in London, England. He was educated at London and Heidelberg universities. At Heidelberg he formed a lasting friendship with Robert Bunsen, whose associate he was in the development of comparative photochemistry. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1863 and was knighted in 1884. He published an autobiography in 1906.