Wallace Alan Akers was born in
Walthamstow, England, the second child of an accountant, Charles Akers, and his wife, Mary Ethelreda née Brown. He was educated at Lake House School in
Bexhill-on-Sea, Essex, and
Aldenham School in Hertfordshire. He entered
Christ Church, Oxford, where he specialised in physical chemistry, graduating with
first class honours in 1909. Official Historian
Margaret Gowing noted that "No doubt Akers had been picked for his personality and drive that had been considered so important and which he possessed in abundance". Akers' ICI background led to difficulties when it came to dealing with the American Manhattan Project. American officials such as
Vannevar Bush,
James Conant and
Leslie Groves saw him as "an Imperial Chemical Industries man at heart", and he aroused American suspicions that British interest in
atomic energy was with its commercial possibilities after the war. As a result,
James Chadwick was appointed the head of the
British mission to the Manhattan Project, but Akers remained director of Tube Alloys until the end of the war. In 1946, Akers returned to the Board of ICI where he served as director of research until April 1953, when he retired, having reached the compulsory retirement age of 65. and was
knighted in 1946, both for his services to the war effort. He became a fellow of the
Royal Society in 1953, and received honorary degrees of
D.Sc. from
Durham University and
D.C.L. from
Oxford University. After his retirement, he remained a member of the Advisory Council of the
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and was part of the three-man April 1953 committee that drew up the organisation of what became the
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. He was a member of the
National Gallery's scientific advisory committee, later becoming a trustee, and was the treasurer of the
Chemical Society from 1948 to 1954. He married Bernadette Marie La Marre in 1953, and died at their home in
Alton, Hampshire, on 1 November 1954. ==Notes==