Bernard de Coligny Marchand, analytical chemist, was the son of Reverend Bernard Petrus Jacobus Marchand and his wife Annabella Wilson, born Lockhart. He attended the Boys' High School
at Rondebosch (now part of Cape Town), and passed the matriculation examination
of the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1902. Continuing his studies at
Victoria College, Stellenbosch, he was awarded the degree Bachelor of Arts (BA)
by the university in 1906. He then proceeded to Germany where he studied at the
University of Halle from about 1908 to 1911, but was awarded the degree Doctor
of Science (DSc) by the University of Edinburgh in 1912.
Upon his return to South Africa Marchand was appointed as
assistant chemist in the Division of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture
in 1913 and stationed in Pretoria. He succeeded H.J. Vipond* as Chief of the
division in 1917, for a period of four years. Later he was appointed as
government analyst under the Sale of food
and drugs and seed act and the Wine,
spirits and vinegar act of 1925. In that year he was transferred to Cape
Town, but a few years later was sent to Johannesburg to head the Government
Chemical Laboratories. Subsequently he returned to Cape Town, where he remained.
Marchand was soon recognised as an authority on soil
fertility, particularly on the physical properties of soils. His publications
included a number of papers in the South
African Journal of Science, among them the following: 'The determination of
phosphoric oxide, particularly in fertilisers' (1918); 'On the volumetric
determination of phosphoric oxide' (1920); 'The origin of black turf soils in
the Transvaal' (1924); 'The composition of the fractions separated by
mechanical analysis from some Transvaal soils' (with C.R. van der Merwe, 1925);
'Notes on some physical properties of soils' (1926); and 'The sticky point
water of soils' (1930). Other papers by him appeared in the Journal of the South African Chemical
Institute, the South African Journal
of Industries, and publications of the Department of Agriculture. The
latter included 5 articles on the physical properties and chemical analysis of
soils. His work on the sticky point of soil-water mixtures led to contacts with
agricultural research workers at Rothamstead, England, and in Ireland, and
during the joint meeting of the British and South African Associations for the
Advancement of Science held in South Africa in 1929 developed into cooperation
in the investigation of common problems.
Marchand was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of South
Africa in 1926. He was a member of the South African Chemical Institute from
1924, served on its council for many years from 1925, and was its president for
1927/8. He became a member of the South African Association for the Advancement
of Science in 1915 and served as president of Section B (which included
chemistry) in 1925. His presidential address dealt with 'Soil formation and
classification' (South African Journal of
Science, 1925). He was elected a member of the association's council in
1922 and served as such on and off until his death.
In his spare time Marchand was active in the translation of
old documents form the time of the South African Republic and was associated
with Ethel and James Gray who wrote A
history of the discovery of the Witwatersrand goldfields (1940). He was
survived by his wife, Gertrude Ivy Marchand, and a daughter.
