From the Radical Archives Chemist By Alex Hale
Shrewsbury High School’s Archives contain an extensive collection of photographs, documents and artefacts offering a wealth of history about our School. As proud stewards of such rich history since 1885, Scribble publishes poems, stories and history from this period to the present date. In this edition of Scribble we go back in time and look who resided at Tower Place, 28 Town Walls.
T
he most famous scientific son of Shrewsbury is undoubtedly Charles Darwin, known for his work on the theory of evolution and rightly recognised as one of the greatest scientists of all time. Another Scientist born in Shrewsbury just over 30 years after Darwin, went on to make a fundamental scientific discovery that not only explains how many chemical reactions work, but also has implications in human health. The contrast between these two scientific pioneers could not be more stark; very few people have heard of Thomas Porter Blunt. Thomas Porter Blunt (1842-1929) was a pharmaceutical chemist, public analyst for Shropshire, Montgomery and Merioneth, and was responsible for the botanical collection at Shropshire Museum. He lived at 28 Town Walls from at least 1881 until his death in 1929.
23
Thomas Blunt (By kind permission of Jeanette Jerome).
