Bretherick was born in 1926 and received a BSc from the
University of Liverpool in 1946 He worked for
May & Baker from 1945 to 1960, He then had two years in chemical production at L. Light & Co before moving to
BP Research Centre,
Sunbury-on-Thames, in 1962 where he stayed till his early retirement in 1982. A second edition followed in 1979. As well as corrections and additional reactions, this contained a new section dealing with groups of compounds and some other matters. A third edition followed in 1985, Bretherick having retired in 1982 in order to work full-time on the project. As a result, he did not contribute new material to further editions, which was done by others. The fourth edition onwards were titled
Bretherick’s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards. In 1988, Bretherick received the
American Chemical Society (ACS) Chemical Health and Safety Award for his outstanding contributions in the field of chemical health and safety. He was a
Chartered Chemist and Fellow of the
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). He also edited a RSC handbook on chemical laboratory hazards, as well as numerous articles on chemical safety. He was selected as one of the RSC’s “175 Faces of Chemistry” noting that his achievements were made despite poor eyesight (and eventual near blindness) and a
stammer (he was an active member of the
British Stammering Association). He died in April 2003, survived by his wife, Margaret. ==References==