(1879-1986) chemist, geologist, mineralogist, archaeologist, historian and librarian

Edwin John Beer was born in Hounslow on 7th February 1879 and was the son of a commodore of the Clan Line. As a result, he travelled a great deal during his youth, making his first voyage to India at the age of 7, before he attended St Dunstan’s College and then St Paul’s School, although he would be expelled for returning from India late. In 1896 he planned to attend the Royal College of Science but was unable to due to an issue with his eyesight, and as such much of his expertise was self-taught.

Initially Edwin Beer worked in the City of London’s Public Analyst’s Office before joining the East India Merchant Shipping. Following a lecture on cellulose he would leave this position to go and work as a chemist for the Cross Syndicate. In 1897 he was appointed Chief Works Chemist at their Kew Garden Laboratory with the aim of creating the first artificial viscose rayon. Cross had been unable to discover how this could be spun into a useable fabric. Beer was able to develop an acid fixing treatment which solved this problem and was able to produce a material that was of use to the textile industry. He would use this to produce the first artificial silk stocking, which he was able to exhibit at the 1900 Paris exhibition, as well as filaments for light bulbs. On 22nd August 1904 Courtaulds would purchase the patent for rayon but they decided they did not require Beer’s expertise and as a result he would be made redundant.

In addition to his chemistry work Beer was also a keen photographer and would be sent to photograph the Keuper/Cretaceous fault at Seaton and the Beer landslip in East Devon.

Following the end of his work on rayon he would travel to India, where in 1908 he would begin work with the General Prospecting Syndicate. This involved a great deal of traveling, which would result in his being arrested on suspicion of being a French spy but would result in the discovery and mining of large mineral deposits, especially iron ore. During the First World War he would continue with this work but would focus more of his time on a project to find tungsten deposits, as Germany controlled all of the then known major sources. Around this time, he would also conduct surveys aimed at filling in previously blank areas of the geological map of India, work for which he would receive a silver medal from the Mining and Geological Institute of India in 1918.

By this time Edwin Beer had become known as a world expert on the subjects of geology, mineralogy and archaeology. In 1922 he would marry Margaret Finney before returning to his work in India, where he discovered a source of Portland Stone which was used from creating cement. He would then leave India, travelling to Cook Island before arriving in San Francisco in 1926. Here he would work as a mineral dealer until he returned to Britain in 1927. Here he would join the Torquay Natural History Society, becoming head of the geology section in 1928 and later president of the society in 1949. Unfortunately, his wife would die soon after his return.

In 1934 Edwin Beer would marry his second wife, Phoebe Hill, and they settled in Paignton. The two of them would publish ‘The Beginning of Rayon’. This book would detail his early work in chemistry and was written in response to what he saw as the incorrect histories being produced by Courtaulds. In 1965 he would become a senior fellow of the Royal Geological Society and during the 1970s would work for the National Trust. In addition to this he would continue to give lectures at the Torquay Natural History Society. On his 99th birthday he was unable to complete a lecture and returned the next year in order to finish it.

Although he was described in an article on his life as ‘still fit’ at the age of 107 he would die soon after on 20th October 1986. At the time he was the second oldest man in Britain.