Dr Burgess's rectorship coincided with a remarkable development of the roll and of the work of the Academy. ...

Dr Burgess gave his school a signal example of devotion to knowledge, industry, kindliness of heart, high ideals. He was hampered in the later years by his health; he was stricken towards the end by grievous domestic afflictions, but he served his day and generation well, he spent more than half of his active life in Rothesay, and he enabled many a Rothesay boy and girl to develop their gifts to the maximum and to increase their usefulness to the country and the Empire.

At the close of the Colloquium in the afternoon the President, Mr Burgess, paid a tribute to the enthusiasm and energy with which the secretary, Mr Comrie, had thrown himself into the work of organising the meeting. The first Mathematical Colloquium in Britain had proved a complete success, a success that was chiefly due to the ability of the lecturers, each an authority on his own subject. No happier combination could have been made than that of the three lecturers, in whom it was remarked that the three nationalities were represented - English, Irish, and Scottish. Mr Burgess ventured the prediction that this, the first, Colloquium would not be the last, and suggested the possibility of a similar meeting at the time of the Napier celebrations next year.