Norrish was born inCambridge and was educated atThe Perse School andEmmanuel College, Cambridge.[5] He was a former student ofEric Rideal.[1] From an early age he was interested in chemistry, walking up and down Cambridge University chemical laboratory admiring all the equipment. His father encouraged him to construct and equip a small laboratory in his garden shed in his garden and supplied all the chemicals he needed to conduct experiments.[6] This apparatus now forms part of the Science Museum collections - reference shows copper water tank.[7] He used to enter competitions for the analysis of mixtures sent round by the Pharmaceutical Journal and often won prizes.[6] In 1915 Norrish won a Foundation Scholarship to Emmanuel College, but by adding a little to his age joined theRoyal Field Artillery and served as a Lieutenant, first in Ireland and then on theWestern Front.[6]
Norrish was a prisoner inWorld War I and later commented, with sadness, that many of his contemporaries and potential competitors at Cambridge had not survived the War. Military records show that 2nd Lieutenant Norrish of the Royal Artillery went missing (captured) on 21 March 1918.
The skill which Norrish displayed in his laboratory work problems marked him out amongst his contemporaries as an unusually gifted and energetic experimentalist, capable of making significant advances in photo-chemistry and gas kinetics.[6]
Ronald G.W. Norrish on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1967Some Fast Reactions in Gases Studied by Flash Photolysis and Kinetic Spectroscopy
