John David Philip Meldrum


Quick Info

Born
18 July 1940
Rabat, Morocco
Died
9 August 2018
Edinburgh, Scotland

Summary
John Meldrum was a leading expert on wreath products, near-rings and their connection to groups. He spent most of his career at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Biography

John Meldrum was the son of Rev Philip Austin Louis Meldrum (1907-1973) and Marie Ruth Abadia (1905-1989). Philip Meldrum was born on 7 October 1907 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, the son of the tool maker for agricultural engineers Thomas Henry Meldrum (1863-1934) and his wife Elizabeth Taylor (1866-1935). Philip became a Clerk in Holy Orders and on the 26 January 1934 he sailed from London going to Tangier on the Strathnaver. He was going to Morocco as a missionary and stated that he intended Morocco to be his future permanent residence. He returned to England on 16 November 1935 and, on 4 January 1936, married Marie Ruth Abadia at St Johns Church in Upper Holloway, London. On 10 January 1936 the newly married couple sailed on the Mooltan from London on their way back to Morocco. Marie Ruth Abadia had been born on 5 April in Beirut, Lebanon. She spent time in England and at the age of 16 was living in Bristol. In October 1927 she sailed from Port Said to London with the intention of qualifying as a midwife. She lived at 16 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London for several years but went to Morocco, sailing back to Plymouth, England from Tangier on 12 December 1935 about three weeks before her wedding.

On 15 July 1938 Philip and Ruth Meldrum sailed from Morocco to London and went to live at 31 Durdham Park, Bristol. On 23 September 1938 their first child Sonia Pauline Marguerite Meldrum (1938-2024) was born in Bristol. The family returned to Morocco leaving London on 6 April 1939 on the Stratheden. Let us note at this point that Sonia married Derek Ryder on 7 September 1963 in Cambridge, England. She died on 6 March 2024.

Philip and Ruth Meldrum's second child, John Meldrum, the subject of this biography, was born in Rabat, Morocco on 18 July 1940. He was brought up to speak both English and French and his primary education was at the Petit Lycée Lyautey in Casablanca. At this time Morocco was a French protectorate and the school was a French institution named for Marshal Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey, who was the first French resident general in Morocco. The school had been founded in 1929 and a few years later it also took middle school students. Meldrum graduated from the Petit Lycée Lyautey, and continued his education at the Grand Lycée Lyautey.

On 2 March 1956 Morocco gained its independence from France. The Meldrum family left Casablanca and sailed to London on the Wickenburgh arriving on 7 August 1956. They had already arranged for Sonia attend the Clarendon School for Girls in Abergele, Wales and for John to attend Ipswich School in Ipswich. On the form filled in by incoming passengers, they state that Philip and Marie Meldrum intended to stay in Britain for five months before returning to Casablanca, but Sonia would become permanent residents of North Wales and John would become a permanent resident of Suffolk.

Ipswich School is a famous independent school with a long history beginning in the 15th century. It is the only school mentioned by name in Shakespeare's plays. Meldrum spent two years at the school, entering the Lower VI in September 1956. He joined the Debating Society and took part in a debate on Friday 30 November 1956. The motion debated was that "This House considers that Democracy means the government of the House by its Nursery." The Ipswichian reported [17]:-
J D P Meldrum spoke first. He considered that voters generally were extremely inexperienced, especially the younger ones. This situation was aggravated by politics being a very difficult subject. However, he made it clear that he was not attacking democracy itself.
Meldrum sat the University of Cambridge scholarship examination in December 1957 and was awarded an exhibition to Emmanuel College Cambridge. He sat his A-level examinations in 1958 and began his studies of the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge in October 1958. In 1959, he took Part I of the Mathematics Tripos, gaining a first class. He was a Wrangler in Part II in 1961 and graduated with a B.A. degree. Already an Open Exhibitioner, a State Scholar, a Pemberton and Smart Exhibitioner, he was elected to a Bachelor Scholarship of Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1961.

Meldrum had been taught at Cambridge by a remarkable number of leading mathematicians. Abram Besicovitch had retired the year Meldrum began his studies and had been replaced as Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics by Harold Davenport. There was Philip Hall at King's College who, by that time, held the Sadleirian Chair but did not supervise undergraduates. In addition there was William Hodge who was Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry. Also lecturers in the Mathematics faculty at this time were Frank Adams, Michael Atiyah, J W S (Ian) Cassels, Peter Swinnerton-Dyer, John Arthur Todd and Chris Zeeman. There were three very talented students studying group theory at Cambridge at the same time as Meldrum, all slightly older than him. Trevor Hawkes entered Trinity College Cambridge in 1957 and took Part III of the Mathematical Tripos in 1961. Brian Hartley also matriculated at the University of Cambridge in October 1957 and took Part III of the Mathematical Tripos in 1961. Derek J S Robinson studied at the University of Edinburgh for his first degree, awarded in 1960, then undertook research at Cambridge advised by Philip Hall. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1963 for his thesis Theory of Subnormal Subgroups.

Meldrum took Part III of the Mathematical Tripos in 1962 and, like his three fellow students we have just mentioned, decided to undertake research in group theory. He began research in October 1962 at the University of London where his thesis advisors were Kurt Hirsch and Karl Gruenberg. He was re-elected to a Bachelor Scholarship of Emmanuel College in 1963 and returned to Cambridge where his official thesis advisor was Derek Roy Taunt (1917-2004). He was appointed as a Supernumerary Fellow and College Lecturer in Mathematics at Emmanuel in 1964 and in the same year he was awarded the Rayleigh prize in mathematics. In 1965 he was appointed Director of Studies in Mathematics at New Hall and Emmanuel College. Meldrum was awarded his Ph.D. in 1966 for his thesis Central series in wreath products. He published a paper with the same title in 1967 based on results from his thesis. In it he writes [12]:-
I would like to thank Professor K A Hirsch and Dr K W Gruenberg under whose supervision this work was begun, and Dr D R Taunt under whose supervision this work was continued, for their helpful advice and criticism. I would also like to thank Dr H Liebeck for many helpful discussions and the referee for several helpful suggestions. Part of this work was undertaken while I held a D.S.I.R. Research Studentship for which I thank them.
While he was a student in Cambridge, Meldrum attended St Barnabas Church. There he met Patricia Sealey, the daughter of car manufacturing worker William Cecil Sealey (1910-1999) and his wife Kathleen Mary Blundell (1916-2003), who had been born in Watford, England on 25 April 1944. John and Pat Meldrum were married on 30 March 1968 at St Paul's Church in Cambridge. They had two children, Elizabeth Mary Meldrum (born 26 March 1970) and David Meldrum (born 13 August 1973).

Elizabeth Meldrum, known as Liz, studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge (1988-91) then qualified as a teacher with a PGCE from Cambridge (1991-92). She married the software engineer Marius Charles Milner (born June 1970) in Edinburgh in 1992, was a High School Mathematics Teacher at Davenant Foundation School, London (1992-1996), was awarded a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary (2016), and is now Executive Director, Chaplain Services, Santa Clara County Jail. Marius and Liz Milner have three children: Abigail Elizabeth Milner (born October 1997); Emily M Milner (born in May 2000); and Thomas Marius Milner (born on 20 September 2002).

David Meldrum writes that he is [14]:-
... a British vicar living in Cape Town since 2010, working as the minister in charge of St Peter's church, Mowbray. I'm married to Bev since 1999 and have two foster children. I was born in Edinburgh and raised in Edinburgh, studied English Literature at St Andrews University and then lived in London from 1996 until moving to Cape Town. I'm a third generation Arsenal fan (because my Mum told me to be); and love most sports. I'm passionate about films, stories, homelessness and much else besides. I live with a degenerative arthritic condition affecting the spine and other joints (Ankylosing Spondylitis), depression, anxiety and PTSD.
John Meldrum was appointed as a Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, taking up the post on 1 October 1969. The authors of [10] write:-
After moving to Edinburgh in 1969 the Meldrum family was very active in St Thomas's Episcopal Church, Corstorphine, serving in many roles, including vestry prayer groups and as small group leaders. Certainly, religion was a large part of their married life.

Both children recall a very happy home life with much joy and laughter; they recall John telling the same jokes many times over. John and Pat loved hosting people for dinner parties, and were generous with hospitality and fellowship with church friends, mathematical colleagues, graduate students, and visitors. Both authors can attest to this.
For a brief overview of Meldrum's research achievements we note that he published around 75 papers in top quality journals. His early work on groups, particularly wreath products of groups, led him to become a leading researcher in near-rings. He did much research on the connections between distributively generated near-rings and groups. The authors of [10] give an excellent overview of Meldrum's contributions for readers with a good background in group theory. Let us only give here the basic definition of a distributively generated near-ring:

A near-ring RR is a system with two binary operations, addition and multiplication, such that:
(i) The elements of RR form a group under addition,
(ii) The elements of RR form a semigroup under multiplication,
(iii) x(y+z)=xy+xzx(y+z) = xy+xz, for all x,y,zRx, y, z \in R.
In particular, if RR contains a multiplicative semigroup SS whose elements generate R+R^{+} and satisfy
(iv) (x+y)s=xs+ys(x+y)s = xs+ys, for all x,yRx, y \in R and sSs \in S,
then RR is a distributively generated near-ring.

Meldrum wrote two important books, namely Near-rings and their links with groups, published in 1985 and Wreath products of groups and semigroups, published in 1995. For more information about these books, see THIS LINK.

Since Meldrum was educated in French up to the age of sixteen he was equally at home speaking French or English. He used his bilingual talents to translate. For example he translated Éléments d'histoire des mathématiques (1984) by Nicolas Bourbaki and it was published in 1994 as Elements of the history of mathematics. He was also asked to review many papers and books and was well-known for the high quality of these reviews.

I [EFR] was appointed to the University of St Andrews in 1968 and John Meldrum was appointed to the University of Edinburgh one year later. We soon met at meetings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society got to know each other well. We both supervised Ph.D. students from early in our careers and had many discussions on this topic. John rightly had high standards, but his gentle, kind approach to supervising students and examining their work was clearly evident. He asked me to be an external examiner for one of his Ph.D. students and, a few years later, he was an external examiner of one of my Ph.D. students. That oral is particularly memorable because of its length. The oral took place in a room with a clock on the wall in front of the examiners; we started at 11 o'clock. It was an excellent thesis and John enjoyed discussing details with the candidate. After what seemed quite a long time, John looked up at the clock, saw it was 11:45 and said, "We'll carry on for a little longer." After what seemed more than a little while I looked at the clock which still was 11:45 - it had stopped! John, who had a wonderful sense of humour, was quick to joke with the candidate about the quality being so good he had not realised the oral had gone on for over two hours.

Sarwar Abbasi studied for a Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh in the second half of the 1980s with Meldrum as his advisor. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1989 for his thesis Matrix Near-Rings and Generalized Distributivity. He wrote [7]:-
John will always remain alive in our hearts and minds. His contributions to mathematics, especially near-ring theory, will keep him alive. He was a role model for me. He was not only a great mathematician but also a very gentle, kind and honest person. I always felt myself a lucky student to have him as my research supervisor. When I joined him in 1985 at Edinburgh University, I knew nothing about research in mathematics. He made me able to accomplish my goal and his guidance made me what I am today.
John Meyer, professor at the University of the Free State in South Africa, is one of the authors of [10]. He writes (see [7]):-
I met John in the early 1980s when he visited Stellenbosch in South Africa. It was during this visit that he and Andries van der Walt coined some new ideas that eventually became the topic of my PhD dissertation. John was therefore instrumental in putting me on the launching pad of my mathematical career. Shortly afterwards, in 1990, I paid him a visit in Edinburgh for a period of four months, a period during which I got to know him and his wife Pat very well. During later years, several further visits followed, in both directions, and we also met at several conferences. I have very fond memories of all these visits. I was especially touched by his kindness, his gentleness, his sense of humour and the way in which he cherished and lived his Christian values. He will be greatly missed not only by the mathematical community with which he closely collaborated, but also by his many friends. In particular, I am filled with gratitude for the lasting positive influence he had on my life. He was a good man.
Meldrum was a strong supporter of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society and served as a Secretary from 1971 to 1980. He lectured to the Society in session 1973-74, giving the talk Near-rings and groups. He was elected as Chairman of the Committee of the British Mathematical Colloquium at the meeting held in the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, on 8 April 1976. In this capacity he undertook to approach various universities concerning a venue for 1980 Colloquium; the University of Sheffield was chosen. His main task in his role as Chairman, however, was as one of the two organisers of the British Mathematical Colloquium which was held at the University of Edinburgh in March 1977.

He was promoted to Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in 1982 and in 1996 he was promoted to Reader. He retired at the end of July 2004 [10]:-
In addition to lecturing to undergraduates, John was active in the Department's algebra seminar, was a member of several course committees in the Department, serving as chair of a working party on third-year courses, 1979-1980, and from 1993 until his retirement, he was the Departmental Director of Studies. At the Faculty of Science level, he was a member of the Postgraduate Studies Committee from 1977 to 1980.
Meldrum's wife Pat died on 4 May 2011. He continued to undertake research and published the paper Unit groups of compatible near-rings and Linz wreath products authored in collaboration with Gary L Peterson from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA. The paper contains the following acknowledgement:-
Portions of this paper were developed while the authors were guests at Johannes Kepler Universität in Linz, Austria in June and July of 2012 with the first author [John Meldrum] supported by the Austrian Science Fund and the second [Gary Peterson] by a research fellowship from the University. The authors thank the University for its hospitality and support during this time.
If the reader is surprised that a paper on "Linz wreath products" was born in Linz, then we should say that it is not a coincidence since the authors chose the name "Linz wreath product" because they had the idea while in Linz. Günter Pilz in the review [16] calls the paper a "marvellous paper" and a "masterpiece". A fitting last paper in an outstanding research career.

Meldrum' last years were a struggle with Parkinson's disease. He died at 14:15 at Murrayfield House, 66 Murrayfield Avenue, Edinburgh on 9 August 2018. He was cremated at Mortonhall Crematorium, Edinburgh, on 25 August 2018. The author of [7] writes:-
John Meldrum was a deeply religious man, a committed, active church member, a man of intelligence and integrity, a man who had a profound love for his family. He will be sorely missed but has left many wonderful memories for those who knew him. The world is a better place because of him.
Let us end this biography with a quote from Suraiya Mahmood given in [10]:-
John David Philip Meldrum was my supervisor for my Ph.D. in near-rings at Edinburgh University from 1976-1979. An inspiring teacher and supervisor, who nurtured his students to not only excel academically but also enabled a holistic sense of well being. As a mother of three young children following a challenging and academically rigorous regimen of study and research, I found him to be always helpful and kind with an intrinsic understanding of the challenges of a young student family. His helpful and understanding nature enabled us to quickly settle into our new environment. Besides our obvious connection on Mathematics we shared a passion for Sports, especially cricket and table tennis. Our research together continued even beyond the completion of my Ph.D. and we participated in many conferences together. The bond formed between both families has continued over the years, with my last meeting with J D P Meldrum a few weeks before his passing away in 2018. He was a guide, a fellow mathematician, a mentor and a lifelong friend, who greatly enriched our lives over a span of 42 years.


References (show)

  1. H F Bechtell, Review: Near-rings and their links with groups, by J D P Meldrum, zbMATH 0658.16029.
  2. H E Bell, Review: Near-rings and their links with groups, by J D P Meldrum, Mathematical Reviews MR0854275 (88a:16068).
  3. I Chesterman, Obituary - Dr John David Philip Meldrum, Old Ipswichians (2 October 2020).
    https://oldipswichians.ipswich.school/news/obituaries/121/121-Obituary-Dr-John-David-Philip-Meldrum
  4. John David Philip Meldrum, UK Government Company Information (2024).
    https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/D8Fc6ayCHg8Gu7LkoxEhWqpZTxY/appointments
  5. John David Philip Meldrum, Mathematics Genealogy Project (2024).
    https://www.mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=51654
  6. John David Philip Meldrum, Oberwolfach Photo Collection (2024).
    https://opc.mfo.de/person_detail?id=2818
  7. John David Philip Meldrum, Obituaries. Emmanuel College Magazine (2020-21), 221-223.
  8. U Knauer, Review: Wreath products of groups and semigroups, zbMATH 0833.20001.
  9. P Lakatos, Review: Wreath products of groups and semigroups, Mathematical Reviews MR1379113 (97j:20030).
  10. C J Maxon and J H Meyer, John David Philip Meldrum, Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society 53 (4) (2021), 1249-1262.
  11. J D P Meldrum, Wreath products of groups and semigroups (Longman, Harlow, 1995).
  12. J D P Meldrum, Central series in wreath products, Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 63 (1967), 551-567.
  13. J D P Meldrum, On nilpotent wreath products, Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 68 (1) (1970), 1-15.
  14. D Meldrum, A British vicar living in Cape Town, HuffPost (2024).
    https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/dave-meldrum
  15. G F Pilz, Review: Near-rings and their links with groups, by J D P Meldrum, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 17 (1) (1987), 157-160.
  16. G F Pilz, Review: Unit groups of compatible near-rings and Linz wreath products, by John D P Meldrum and Gary L Peterson, Mathematical Reviews MR3460479.
  17. E F Robertson, Personal memories of John Meldrum, University of St Andrews (June 2024).
  18. The Ipswichian 24 (1) (1957).
  19. The Ipswichian 26 (4) (1964).

Additional Resources (show)

Other pages about John Meldrum:

  1. John Meldrum's books

Honours (show)

Honours awarded to John Meldrum

  1. EMS Secretary 1971-1980

Cross-references (show)


Written by J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Last Update August 2024