“ From childhood he showed great aptitude for science; geology was his favourite subject, but since this in his father’s opinion did not afford a career of promise, he devoted himself to chemistry, which he studied under Thomas Graham at University College, London, and Liebig at Giessen, where he graduated as Ph.D. in 1847. In 1850 he became chemical lecturer at St Thomas’s hospital, and three years later was elected a fellow of the Royal Society at the unusually early age of twenty-six. ”

“ Dr Gladstone always took a great interest in educational questions, and from 1873 to 1894 he was a member of the London School Board. He was also a member of the Christian Evidence Society, and an early supporter of the Young Men’s Christian Association. ”

“ From 1874 to 1877 he was Fullerian professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution, in 1874 he was chosen first president of the Physical Society, and in 1877–1879 he was president of the Chemical Society. In 1897 the Royal Society recognized his fifty years of scientific work by awarding him the Davy medal. Dr Gladstone’s researches were large in number and wide in range, dealing to a great extent with problems that lie on the border-line between physics and chemistry. ”