Charles Enrique Dent

Who was Charles Enrique Dent?

Charles Enrique Dent was a British biochemist.

He was born in Burgos, Spain, son of Leeds-born Frankland Dent and his Spanish wife Carmen de Mira y Perceval. His father was the government Chemist in Singapore but his wife went home to Spain for the birth. The family later moved back to England and Charles was educated at Bedford School and Wimbledon College. In 1927 he left school to work in a bank but moved to work as a laboratory technician and study at evening classes at Regent Street Polytechnic. In 1930 he entered Imperial College London to study chemistry and graduated BSc. In 1934 he was awarded a PhD for his work on copper phthalocyanin and went to work for ICI Dyestuffs Group in Manchester.

In 1937 he entered University College, London as a medical student. During WWII he saw war service in France and as a consultant in chemistry in the scientific department of British censorship, including two years service in Bermuda and the USA. In 1944 he qualified in medicine and became house physician to Sir Thomas Lewis at University College. In 1945 he was appointed Assistant to the Medical Unit at University College Hospital Medical School under Sir Harold Himsworth and was sent to the recently liberated concentration camp at Belsen as part of the Medical Research Council study group to study the treatment of starvation by amino-acid mixtures.