Arthur Herbert Church

He wrote a widely used book on paints, "The Chemistry of Paints and Painting".

Arthur Herbert Church studied at Lincoln College and King's College London. Edward Kinch is recorded as having studied under Arthur Herbert Church. The recorded working language is English. Places of work recorded in the authority are London. Distinctions recorded are Fellow of the Royal Society, Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order and Fellow of the Chemical Society.

Church was born in London, the son of John Thomas Church, a solicitor. His studied at King's College London where he showed an interest in both science and art. He spent four years from 1851 to 1855 at the Royal College of Chemistry where he, under A. W. Hofmann, studied alongside William Henry Perkin with whom he published his first research paper. The next four years were spent at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he received a BA in 1859. He then started a private laboratory in London and beside his chemical analysis work, he started painting landscapes, which were first exhibited in The Royal Academy in May 1854.

Church worked at the college in Cirencester from 1863 to 1879 as a professor. He also worked as an Honorary Curator at the Cirencester Museum of Roman Antiquities. These associations led to work that included analysis of plants, soil, and minerals, extending into gemstones, porcelain and pigments. He examined the red water-soluble plumage of a West African Tauraco after being introduced to it by W. B. Tegetmeier and found that the pigment had 5.8% copper. He then examined the food of the bird and found that Musa sapientum had copper. He also discovered aluminium in a range of plant ashes. Another discovery was a mineral from Cornwall that contained Cerium phosphate and called as Churchite.

He died at Shelsley, Kew Gardens in 1915, and is buried in Richmond Cemetery. He had married Jemima, the daughter of Mr. J. B. Pope; she died at Kew in 1929. Shelsley was a detached house at 21 Ennerdale Road, Kew, now demolished.