John Albert Newton Friend (20 July 1881 – 15 April 1966) was a British chemist and educator who specialized in the chemistry of corrosion and its prevention.
Friend was born in Newton Abbott, son of a Methodist clergyman Hilderic Friend, and after the family moved to Birmingham, he was educated there at King Edwards' School and then went to Birmingham University, receiving a BSc in 1902 and MSc in 1903.
He taught for a while at Watford Grammar School to enable him to pay for his study at the University of Würzburg, receiving a doctorate in 1908.
During World War II, he was involved in training the home guards on chemical warfare.
[6][7][8][9][10][11] Outside of chemistry, he also took an interest in the history of witchcraft, Birmingham, recreational mathematics and numerology: