Back in 1910 when the Old Chemistry building was first completed, the department had just two permanent academic staff - Professor Evans* and Samuel Page*, a demonstrator (at that time, if a department had a professor, other academic staff were called demonstrators; the title ‘lecturer’ was given to the head of a department without a professorial chair).
When Evans and Page both retired at the end of 1922, Henry George Denham* was appointed to the chair, and in 1923 he appointed John Packer to the position of lecturer. Packer was the first staff member who was not a Canterbury College graduate, having instead studied at the University of Melbourne, and he succeeded Denham as the head of the department in 1944. With the appointment of H N Parton* as a lecturer in 1930, Chemistry became the first department in the College to have three academic staff members.
*UC graduates
