Leslie Bretherick (1926–2003) was a chemist and an “internationally recognized authority on laboratory safety”[1] especially remembered for writing the book which became Bretherick's Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards, an indexed guide to published data on dangerous chemical reactions.
[2] Bretherick was born in 1926 [3] and received a BSc from the University of Liverpool in 1946[4] He worked for May & Baker from 1945 to 1960,[1] where a personal injury and a near-miss provoked his lifelong interest in the prevention of chemical accidents.
[5] He then had two years in chemical production at L. Light & Co before moving to BP Research Centre, Sunbury-on-Thames, in 1962 where he stayed till his early retirement in 1982.
[1] It was there that he produced his magnum opus, nearly 1000 pages summarizing published literature on chemical accidents and dangerous reactions, organised by individual compound in 1975.
The fourth edition onwards were titled Bretherick’s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards.