chemistry

Jack Drummond

Jack Drummond is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jack Drummond rather than just read about it. In short: Sir Jack Cecil Drummond FRIC, FRS (12 January 1891 – 4/5 August 1952), known as a child as Jack Cecil Spinks, was a biochemist, noted for his work on nutrition as applied to the British diet under rationing during the Second World War. He was murdered, together with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, in what became known as the Dominici affair, on the night of 4–5 August 1952 near Lurs, a village or commune in the B…

Key takeaways

Jack Drummond belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jack Drummond to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jack Drummond from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sir Jack Cecil Drummond FRIC, FRS (12 January 1891 – 4/5 August 1952), known as a child as Jack Cecil Spinks, was a biochemist, noted for his work on nutrition as applied to the British diet under rationing during the Second World War. He was murdered, together with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, in what became known as the Dominici affair, on the night of 4–5 August 1952 near Lurs, a village or commune in the Basses-Alpes department (now Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) of Southern France.

Early life and family background Jack Drummond was born either in Leicester, or London, likely Newington or Kennington. He was the son of Colonel John Drummond of the Royal Horse Artillery and Nora Gertrude McQuie, who had resided at 65 Howard Road, Clarendon Park, Leicester. John Drummond died at age 55, only three months after Jack's birth. Jack was adopted and raised by a paternal aunt, Maria Spinks, who lived in nearby Charlton. Maria's husband, George, was a retired captain quartermaster, who had seen action in the Crimea. According to author/biographer James Fergusson, life could not have been much fun for the solitary boy in the elderly couple's home. He attended The John Roan School in Greenwich and King's College School. Drummond's family origins remain unclear. No birth certificate exists for him in the Family Records Office. His father John, the major, describes himself as a bachelor in his will, which makes no mention of a son. In the 1891 census, Jack's name was given as "Cecil", his mother's as "Gertrude Drummond", and her age as 29. It is not known what happened to Gertrude (presumably Nora Gertrude McQuie) or whether she was ever married to John. In the 1901 census, his name is recorded as Jack Cecil Spinks, taking his adoptive mother's surname. It is likely that as a boy Jack used the surname Spinks to avoid social embarrassment to his adoptive parents, but reverted to the surname Drummond sometime during his teens. On 17 July 1915, Drummond married Mable Helen Straw, who had also been an undergraduate at East London College. Their marriage lasted 24 years until in 1939 it broke up because of Drummond's affair with his secretary and co-author, Anne Wilbraham (born 10 December 1907). Jack and Anne married on 15 June 1940. Their only child, Elizabeth, was born on 23 March 1942.

Scientific career

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jack Drummond

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jack Drummond claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jack Drummond before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jack Drummond ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jack Drummond

In research: Jack Drummond appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jack Drummond in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jack Drummond is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1891 births, 1952 deaths, 20th-century British biochemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jack Drummond outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jack Drummond in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jack Drummond means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jack Drummond out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jack Drummond in simple terms?

Why does Jack Drummond matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jack Drummond?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jack Drummond.