Philip James Yorke

Philip James Yorke (1799–1874) was a British Army officer and Fellow of the Royal Society.

Life
Born on 13 October 1799, he was eldest son of Philip Yorke, prebendary of Ely (b. 24 February 1770, died 27 July 1835), and his wife, Anna Maria, daughter of Charles Cocks, 1st Baron Somers. At about age of nine he went to the school of Dr. Pearson at East Sheen, and then to Harrow School in 1810. He left Harrow at the age of 16, obtained a commission in the Scots Fusilier Guards, and remained in the regiment till about 1852, attaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel. During the Crimean war he was appointed colonel of the Herefordshire militia, a post which he held for three years.

In 1841 Yorke became one of the original members of the Chemical Society, of which he was vice-president in 1852 and president from 30 March 1853 to 30 March 1855. In 1849 Yorke was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. He also took an active part in the Royal Institution, for which he acted as a manager.

Yorke died on 14 December 1874. He had married, on 27 April 1843, Emily, youngest daughter of William Morgan Clifford of Perrystone, Herefordshire; she died on 16 September 1869.

Works
Yorke was known also as a chemist, mineralogist, and meteorologist; the Royal Society's catalogue contains a list of thirteen papers by him. His first scientific paper was an investigation of the action of lead on water (Philosophical Magazine, 1834 [3] v. 81).

In 1853 Yorke published a translation of F. C. F. von Mueffling's Passages from my Life.