Professor C.H. Bamford, FRS (1912-99), was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in Chemistry in 1934, PhD in 1938, and Sc.D. in 1954. After working during the Second World War in the Ministry of Economic Warfare, he joined the Fundamental Research Laboratory of Courtaulds Ltd. at Maidenhead, Berkshire, serving as its head from 1947 until his appointment as Campbell Brown Professor of Industrial Chemistry in 1962. Professor Bamford, who was elected F.R.S. in 1964, retired from his Chair in 1980.

The Maidenhead Research Laboratory was established just after the War and played a major part in the U.K.'s contribution to the development of polymer science. The Laboratory was closed in 1962. The records deposited by Professor Bamford's widow, Dr. Daphne Bamford, in March 2003, document the pioneering work of Professor Bamford and his colleagues, including the discovery of the Toms' effect (drag reduction in fluid flow), developments of high-speed solution spinning, and other topics. (Akzo Nobel UK Ltd., which took over part of Courtaulds, expressed no interest in acquiring the Research Reports, etc., but it was felt that they should be retained in view of their importance.) Dr G.C. Eastmond, a colleague of Professor Bamford at the Maidenhead Research Laboratory and subsequently a member of staff of the University of Liverpool's Department of Inorganic, Physical and Industrial Chemistry having consulted former colleagues, kindly provided the information identifying those pictured in the photographs (D901/9/1-5) in October 2003.

A brief tribute to Professor Bamford's work was published in The University of Liverpool Recorder, No.84, October 1980, on his retirement. The Times, 14 December 1999, published an obituary and the Royal Society will be publishing a Biographical Memoir of Professor Bamford, probably in 2003-04.