An Active Retirement

Abstract This chapter describes how Roscoe’s activities shifted from Manchester to London after 1885, and his efforts to promote science and scientific medicine in the 1890s and 1900s. The authors place Roscoe’s activities within the context of a broader movement to modernize Britain at the turn of the century. After leaving Parliament in 1895, Roscoe became Vice-Chancellor of the University of London and oversaw its conversion into a teaching university in 1900. He also moved the administration of the university from Burlington Gardens to the Imperial Institute. Roscoe also helped Richard Haldane to create Imperial College in 1907. Roscoe, with Lord Lister, helped to set up the Lister Institute for Preventive Medicine in 1898. He later tried to amalgamate the institute with the forerunner of the National Institute for Medical Research, but was defeated. Roscoe also assisted Norman Lockyer and Robert Morant to set up the Science Museum as an independent body.