Harold Pealing, Master of Science (MSc), was the son of Joseph John Pealing, an engineer, and his wife Emily Jane Clark. He became an Oliver Lodge Fellow at the University of Liverpool around 1911-1912. At this time he published papers on 'Condensation nuclei produced by the action of light on iodine vapour' (with G. Owen; Philosophical Magazine, 1911) and 'The distribution and quality of the secondary Roentgen radiation from carbon' (Proceedings of the Physical Society of London, 1912). In August 1913 he was offered a lectureship in physics at the South African College, Cape Town (from 1918 the University of Cape Town), which he accepted. He became a member of the Royal Society of South Africa and produced several more papers, including the following: 'On an anomalous variation of the rigidity of phosphor bronze' (Philosophical Magazine, 1913; again 1915); 'The effect of vegetation on the rainfall of South Africa' (South African Journal of Science, 1917) in which he argued that vegetation helps to retain soil moisture for later release into the atmosphere; and 'On the reflection of the X-ray spectrum of Palladium from fluorspar' (Proceedings of the Physical Society of London, 1920).

Pealing returned to the United Kingdom during the early nineteen-twenties and settled in London. In 1923 he married Alice A. De'Ath in London. She died as a result of burns sustained in a house fire in Caernarvonshire, Wales in 1936. Subsequently Pealing moved to Liverpool. During World War II (1939-1945) he is thought to have worked as a code breaker at the University of Liverpool. In his later years, he appears to have fallen on hard times and to have led a solitary life.

List of sources:

FamilySearch: Harold Pealing. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVZP-MNRQ?lang=en

Google Scholar, at http://scholar.google.co.za Publications by H. Pealing.

Pealing, Michael (great-nephew). Personal communications 13 October 2020 (including part of family tree and photos), 27 and 30 October 2020.

Ritchie, W. The history of the South African College, 1829-1918. Cape Town: T. Maskew Miller, 1918.

Science, 12 September 1913, Vol. 38, p. 363: Note on Pealing's appointment at the South African College.

South African Journal of Science, 1917, Vol. 14, paper by Pealing.

Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 1917, Vol. 6, list of members.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-08-28 10:07:03