Sir William Cecil Dampier Dampier, FRS
1867-1952. Natural Scientist. 
William Cecil Dampier Whetham was elected to Trinity under that name, but later changed it to W.C.D. Dampier on inheriting the Hillfield estate in Dorset from his Dampier relatives. Under the name W.C.D. Dampier-Whetham he published a number of books including A history of science and its relations with philosophy and religion, Heredity and society and The economics of rural landowning.
He obtained first classes in both parts of the natural sciences tripos, was Coutts Trotter student, and Clerk Maxwell scholar. Influenced by J.J. Thomson he undertook research at the Cavendish Laboratory which earned him a College fellowship in 1891. He was a College lecturer in physics, Tutor, Senior Tutor, and remained a Fellow for the rest of his life, an active member of the finance and estates committees and an ardent supporter of the Cambridge Preservation Society. An attempt in 1918 to represent Cambridge University in parliament as an independent Conservative proved unsuccessful.
In 1901 Whetham was elected fellow of the Royal Society and in the following year he published a treatise, Theory of Solution, which was for some time the standard textbook. He wrote a number of papers on ionic velocities and on electrolysis. Although College duties and other pursuits gradually diverted him from research he retained an interest in the work of other scientists, publishing The Recent Development of Physical Science (1904) and History of Science (1929), both of which went into a number of editions.
Whetham inherited the Dampier family property in 1916 and farmed the land on the Hilfield estate in Dorset between 1918 and 1926. He specialized in the making of cheese and took part in the investigation of the possibilities of extracting lactose from whey. So he came to his last and abiding interest in agricultural economics
From 1931 to 1935 he served as the first secretary of the Agricultural Research Council. He was knighted in 1931 for public service to agriculture. A biography of Dampier was written by Clennell Wilkinson: see http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/1783645.
| Memorial inscription | Translation |
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HOC TITVLO COMMEMORATVR WILLIAM CECIL DAMPIER DAMPIER QVI HVJVS COLLEGII PER LXI ANNOS SOCIVS |
This inscription commemorates William Cecil Dampier Dampier, Fellow of the College for sixty-one years. A kindly, good-natured man, he carried out the duties of Lecturer, Tutor and Member of the Council with prudence. He was a researcher into the natural sciences, turning later to the history of science. He was also a valued advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture. He died in the eighty-fifth year of his age on 11th December 1952. |
William Cecil Dampier DampierBrass located on the south wall of the Ante-Chapel. |
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