William Pugh, inorganic chemist, was educated at Llanelly Secondary School in the south of Wales and during the next few years was on active military service in France and Flanders during World War I (1914-1918). After the war he continued his studies at King's College, London, where he graduated with first class honours in chemistry in 1921. The next year he was appointed as lecturer in inorganic chemistry at the University of Cape Town, under Professor Edgar Newbery. There he soon started to collaborate with Professor J. Smeath Thomas on research into the chemistry of the rare metals germanium and gallium, resulting in a joint paper in 1924. Their work was carried out on a substantial quantity of the rare mineral germanite that was acquired by the chemistry department following the recent discovery of deposits of the mineral at Tsumeb in present Namibia. On the basis of his research Pugh was awarded the PhD degree in chemistry by the University of Cape Town in 1924 with a thesis entitled A study of the mineral germanite: the extraction of germanium therefrom, and a study of the ammonia compounds of germanium tetrachloride. Continuing his research he had by 1930, just after the chemistry department had moved into much better accommodation at Groote Schuur, managed to publish eight papers on the chemistry of germanium in the Journal of the Chemical Society. During the next eight years he shifted his focus to the element gallium and various analytical subjects and produced a further ten papers, two of those on gallium in collaboration with Felix Sebba. In 1938 he was promoted to professor of inorganic chemistry and head of the Department of Chemistry - positions he held until his death in 1955. In 1939 the University of London awarded him the degree Doctor of Science (DSc) on the basis of his research.
In 1924 Pugh married Miss B. Armour, with whom he had two sons and two daughters. The marriage was a happy one, but she died early in 1938. From that time he carried out little research for a number of years, owing also to increased administrative and teaching duties following his promotion and the effects of World War II (1939-1945). In 1945 he married his first wife's sister, Miss M. Armour, and his interest in research was revived, especially after returning from study leave overseas in 1949. He investigated the inorganic and organic compounds of hydrazine and published a dozen papers on the subject between 1952 and 1954. He also made valuable contributions to the determination of chlorides, bromides and iron by using mercurous perchlorate as a volumetric reagent. An important early paper by him dealt with "The stability of bromic acid and its use for the determination of bromide in bromates and in chlorides" (Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 1932). Another of his interests was the high vacuum technique for studying chemical reactions. He published original work on analytical chemical techniques and one of his methods already featured in a text on analytical chemistry in 1934. Just before his death he was working at the University Chemical Laboratories in Cambridge, where he investigated the separation of rare elements. His last paper, published shortly after his death, dealt with "The separation of protactinium and zirconium by an anion exchange column" (with A. G. Maddock; Journal of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, 1956).
Pugh was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of Chemistry in 1921 and a Fellow in 1931. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa in 1934 and was a member of the society's council during 1950-1952. From 1951 to 1954 he served as dean of the Faculty of Science and in the latter year was elected a Fellow of the University of Cape Town for his outstanding service. He promoted co-operation between his department and industry and was a member of the board of the Fishing Industries Research Institute. He has been described as a bluff, cheerful Welshman who excelled as a teacher of practical chemical techniques (Phillips, 1993. p. 347). During his time as head of the chemistry department he directed a wide variety of chemical investigations. His hobbies were gardening and rose culture.
