As I conceive the office of a professor, it is that he should stand before his students as the living representative of those great men who in the past have laboured in that branch of human knowledge which he has made his own; that by means of a reverent yet unflinching criticism he should strive to reveal the workings of these master minds, to the end that he may impart, not mere knowledge, but that more precious gift - the art of acquiring knowledge, the art of discovery. If we approach our task in this spirit, we shall find the key to the solution of much that is difficult and perplexing in our present knowledge, and the inspiration which will lead us on to further discoveries.

It seems natural, therefore, that I should seek to illustrate this theme by means of the subject which throughout my mathematical career has inspired me more than any other branch of mathematics or physics into which my work has led me, and the subject which, as far as one may venture to prophesy as to the future course of scientific thought, seems marked out for great advances in the immediate future.

Prof Jeffery and Dr Perrett have rendered a great service to students of the theory of Relativity by giving a translation into English of eleven original papers by Einstein and others. These papers enable us to trace the origin of the theory and the continual changes during its development.

... on too slender an experimental basis. He regarded it as a kind of pure mathematics that had drifted out of touch with reality.

[Filon] was vigorous and combative and, by reason of the restraint of a certain shyness, his combats usually began with explosive force.

It may be that his appointment to a chair of pure mathematics was unfortunate. He was entirely competent to act as a director of the teaching and organisation of a department of pure mathematics. As his Presidential Address to the London Mathematical Society shows, he had thought deeply on the problems of teaching, and on what should be taught in such a department. However at this time graduate students were beginning to come along with problems in pure mathematics with which Jeffery was not able to deal, and he was compelled to leave much of this work to his assistants. It may also be said that though he had been very successful in the rather limited field of exact solutions of physical problems, he never advanced into the wider fields of approximation in which so much has since been achieved. He was also becoming increasingly absorbed in the problems of college and university administration. At any rate he never made any further original contribution to pure mathematics, and even in applied mathematics his original work came to an early end.

In addressing the Society at the conclusion of his term of office the President usually has no difficulty in finding in his own contributions to mathematical research some topic of sufficient importance and general interest to provide the theme of his discourse. There is another custom, more prevalent in the early period of the history of the Society but never for very long in abeyance, under which the President speaks on some more general aspect of our common concern for the promotion of mathematical studies in a way that would not be appropriate in an ordinary communication to the Society. It is the latter alternative that I choose, and I will speak more particularly as one who, for a number of years, has been concerned with the conduct and development of a school of pure mathematics outside Oxford and Cambridge.

In the 1940s Bangor University was much smaller than it is now, and some university buildings were commandeered for war uses. Finding suitable premises for all of the University College London students was a problem. Initially science students made do with a laboratory bench in a room in the university's main building, but from 1942 there were facilities at 164 High Street, previously a bicycle shop.

Taking a keen interest in student life, [Jeffery] laboured to preserve the traditions of the College and to weld the students into a corporate whole. On returning to London in 1944, he took the lead in instituting student hostels.

In 1945 the University of London accepted responsibility for the training of teachers in this area. It submitted a draft scheme as a basis for further discussion, and the task of giving this scheme a definite and practicable form therefore fell largely upon Jeffery. The elaborate shaping of the London Area Scheme was almost entirely his work, and in the reconciling of the many varied interests involved he had a long and formidable task. He had a vision of a more comprehensive Institute of Education in which all the constituent colleges and all the teachers in them should have some responsible share. In getting such a vision on to paper Jeffery was at his best. He saw the need for a definite plan to put before the Senate so that the university might know precisely to what it was committed. He produced the plan in two days of concentrated work, and it has never since needed substantial alteration. His sense of dignity and respect for teaching forbade the casual entry of all these colleges into the ambit of the university. A full scale Inauguration Ceremony was staged. The Chancellor of the University, the Earl of Athlone, presided, and the Minister of Education and many other notables were present. Jeffery made a long speech in which he reviewed the history of all the colleges and expressed his hopes for the future of the whole organization. This must have been one of the proudest days of his life.