Royal College of Chemistry (London)

Liebig made a lecture tour of England in the early 1840s at which time he described the advances in organic chemistry in Germany and the new training of students in laboratory practices. Prince Consort Albert brought Hofmann to England in 1845 to head the Royal College. Hofmann was well-suited for the position because he had been a student of philology (linguistics) at Giessen before studying chemistry under Liebig. The young William Henry Perkin , who established the English dye industry with his serendipitous discovery of mauve, entered the Royal College in 1853 at the age of fifteen.