Rona Robinson was the first woman in the United Kingdom to gain a first-class degree in chemistry and one of the first documented female industrial chemists.
20 Facts About Rona Robinson
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Rona Robinson was a British suffragette and paid member of the Women's Social and Political Union.
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Rona Robinson was the youngest child of Jessie and Fred Robinson, both of her parents originating from the Manchester area, from Chorlton-on-Medlock and Cheetham Hill respectively.
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Rona Robinson was from a working-class background, her father is listed as cotton goods traveller.
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Rona Robinson's father died when Robinson was young and her mother took in lodgers to make ends meet.
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Rona Robinson gained a scholarship to study at Owens College, Manchester, matriculating in 1902.
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Rona Robinson graduated with a first class honours degree in chemistry, the LeBlanc medal and a Mercer scholarship in 1905.
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Rona Robinson was the first woman in the United Kingdom to gain a first-class degree in chemistry.
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Rona Robinson continued at Manchester, working for her research MSc during which she published a paper entitled 3-Hydroxyphthalic and 3-methoxyphthalic acids and their derivatives with William Henry Bentley and Charles Weitzmann.
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Marsden and Rona Robinson were appointed organisers from the Manchester branch in 1909 but quickly moved to other locations for much of their work.
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Rona Robinson's address was given as Brinslea Villas, Brook Road, Fallowfield Manchester.
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Rona Robinson was imprisoned several times and there are 2 dates on her suffrage medal showing she went on hunger strike during her imprisonment.
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Sources suggest Rona Robinson's medal was sold to a private collector in the USA.
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Rona Robinson had been outspoken on feminist matters during her years as a suffragette, giving a talk in the Freewoman Discussion Circle on the Abolition of Domestic Drudgery.
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Rona Robinson was a Gilchrist postgraduate scholar in Home Science and Economics at King's College for Women in 1912.
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Rona Robinson resigned her scholarship, citing that the course offered was "worthless from an educational point of view".
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Rona Robinson wrote extensively on her criticism of the study of domestic science, particularly in feminist publications.
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Rona Robinson is considered to be one of the first documented female research chemists.
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Rona Robinson's work included responsibility for transferring chemical reactions she had devised to large-scale production.
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Rona Robinson was promoted to Chief Chemist in 1916 and become an associate of the Institute of Chemistry in 1919.