576 Ohituanj—D)\ Walter Flight, F.R.8. 



Hampshire, in. the days when George Edmondson was head master, 

 and Tyndall and Debus were the teachers of science. 



From Queenwood he went to the University of Halle, where, in 

 the Laboratory of Prof. Heintz, he specially applied himself to 

 chemistry during the winter session of 1863-64. 



During 1864 and 1865 he studied at the University of Heidelberg, 

 where, in the Laboratories of the celebrated Professors Bunsen, Kopp, 

 and Kirchhoff. he devoted himself earnestly to acquire that thorough 

 knowledge of the various branches of theoretical and practical 

 chemistry, and that marked facility for overcoming experimental 

 difficulties which characterize the practised and careful worker. 

 From Heidelberg Flight passed to the University of Berlin, where 

 he remained until 1867, studying and working in Prof. Hofmann's 

 Laboratory, and for a time filling the office of his Secretary and 

 Chemical Assistant. 



Keturning to England in 1867, he graduated D.Sc. in the 

 University of London, and in the following year was appointed 

 by the Senate to the office of Assistant Examiner under Prof. Debus 

 (his former teacher at Queenwood). On the 5th September, 1867, Dr. 

 Flight was appointed an Assistant in the Mineralogical Department 

 of the British Museum, and a Laboratory was fitted up for his 

 use. Here, under the direction of Prof. Maskelyne, the Keeper of 

 Mineralogy, he commenced a series of researches into the chemical 

 composition of the mineral constituents of meteorites and the 

 occluded gases they contained. Many of the methods by which he 

 carried out these investigations were originated by him in the course 

 of his researches, and displayed in a remarkable degree his skill and 

 ingenuity in chemical manipulation. 



He was shortly after this date appointed Examiner in Chemistry 

 and Physics at the Koyal Military Academy, Woolwich, and in 1876 

 Examiner to the Royal Military Academy, Cheltenham. 



For several years Dr. Flight served on the Luminous Meteors 

 Committee of the British Association, to which he lent much valuable 

 assistance. 



Between the years 1864 and 1883 he was author of twenty-one 

 original papers, embracing descriptions of the Cranbourne, Eowton, 

 and Middlesborough Meteorites, which appeared in the Philosophical 

 Transactions ; and " A Chapter in the History of Meteorites," which 

 appeared in a succession of twenty-three articles in the Geological 

 Magazine in 1875, 1882, and 1883. He was also joint author or 

 contributor of results to many other papers, chiefly with Professor 

 Story-Maskelyne, F.E.S., on the Mineral Constituents of Meteorites, 

 as the Busti, the Manegaum and the Breitenbach Meteorites, read 

 before the Royal Society between 1870-71. 



Dr. Flight was elected to the Royal Society, June 7th, 1883. 



In 1884 he was seized by illness which prostrated his mental 

 powers, and rendered it needful for him to resign his appointment in 

 the British Museum in June last, and notwithstanding every care 

 which medical skill or affection of friends could devise, he succumbed 

 on 4th November, leaving a wife and three young children to 

 deplore his early loss. 



