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Harold William Sanders

Quick Info

Born
16 September 1893
Norwood, South Australia, Australia
Died
3 September 1983
Malvern, Victoria, Australia
Summary
Harold Sanders was an Australian mathematician who taught at the University of Western Australia and the University of Adelaide where he became Elder Professor of Mathematics 1944-1958. He was an excellent lecturer and did much to support the development of Australian mathematics.
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Biography

Harold Sanders was the son of William Sanders (1867-1955) and Amy Delbridge (1866-1899). William Sanders was born on 2 July 1867 in Queenstown, City of Port Adelaide, Enfield, South Australia, the son of Charles Sanders (1846-1891), from Redruth, Cornwell, England, and Sarah Rhoda Veysey (1844-1890). Charles Sanders emigrated to Australia shortly after Adelaide was colonised and was the Board of Works engineer. William Sanders was a highly-regarded professional organist who established a business in Adelaide selling musical instruments. He married Amy Delbridge on 12 April 1893 in Rose Park, South Australia. They had three children: Harold William Sanders (1893-1983), the subject of this biography; Irma Sanders (1894-1919), who trained to be a teacher but died aged 25 in Kadina, South Australia; and Raymond Charles Sanders (1896-1989), who became a musician and ran Sanders' Piano Warehouse.

Harold Sanders was brought up in a home in Charles Street, Norwood, a suburb of Adelaide. His mother Amy died on 27 October 1899 when Harold was six years old. When he was twelve years old, he was awarded a scholarship to study at St Peter's College. This independent boarding school for boys was founded in 1847 by members of the Anglican Church. They aimed to establish a school that was similar to the independent schools in England. The school is in Hackney, a suburb of Adelaide adjacent to Norwood. The headmaster, when Sanders was a pupil, was Henry Girdlestone (1863-1926), an Anglican clergyman who had a natural sciences degree from Oxford University. The school flourished under his leadership. In 1907 Sanders studied History, Greek, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Inorganic Chemistry and German. In 1908 he studied Applied Mathematics, etc., and in 1909 he studied Greek, Latin, Pure Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.

Sanders excelled at the school and was awarded a scholarship and the Hartley studentship to study at the University of Adelaide. The Hartley studentship, named after John Anderson Hartley who had been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Adelaide from 1893 until his death in 1896, was awarded to the entrant student ranked top in their final years at secondary school.

On 18 September 1909, Sanders matriculated at the University of Adelaide where he studied mathematics and Latin. On 1 January 1911 he entered the MA Honours course in mathematics. He was taught mathematics by Robert William Chapman, the Elder Professor of Mathematics and Mechanics at the University of Adelaide and he was taught physics by Kerr Grant, the Elder professor of physics at the University of Adelaide. Sanders graduated on 18 December 1912 with a BA Degree with First Class Honours in Mathematics. He was awarded a 1851 Science Research Bursary by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 to fund three years of research at the University of Adelaide supervised by Kerr Grant. This was a prestigious award given to those showing exceptional abilities. Sanders, however, only spent six months working with Kerr before he decided to accept the position of lecturer in mathematics and physics at the Perth Technical School in 1913.

On 19 May 1913 Harold Sanders' father William Sanders, married again. His second wife was Ada Hazel Garden (1887-1971); they had three children: Robert William Sanders (born 1917), William Charles Sanders (born 1919), and Hazel Sanders (born 1921).

Perth Technical School, where Harold Sanders began his teaching career, was the first institution in Western Australia to offer tertiary education. From 1905 the University of Adelaide allowed the Technical School's students to sit their undergraduate examinations in mathematics, physics, science, chemistry, geology, mineralogy and botany. After the University of Western Australia was established in 1914 it took over the role previously held by the University of Adelaide. Sanders taught at the Perth Technical School until 1916, when he appointed to an assistant lectureship in mathematics and physics at the University of Western Australia. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1917.

World War I had begun in 1914 and, on 4 August 1916, he had offered himself for enlistment in the Australian Imperial Force for Active Service Abroad. He gave his occupation as University Lecturer and his address as 62 Mount Street, Perth. He gave personal details: age 22 years 11 months; height 5 ft 6 in; chest 33 in (35 in expanded). Although he passed for enlistment, it was not approved [4]:-
The enlistment is not approved it being considered desirable that the applicant should remain at his post in the Perth University.
While teaching at the University of Western Australia, Sanders met the mathematics student Isobel Nowell Armstrong (1897-1980). Isobel was born in Brighton, Victoria, Australia to the Rev John William Armstrong, a Church of England clergyman in Perth, Western Australia, and Mary Louisa Hicks. It was certainly unusual for a girl to graduate in mathematics at this time but she was not the only member of her family to have such an unusual educational achievement since her younger sister Florence Irene Armstrong (1903-1988) was the first woman to graduate in geology in Western Australia. Harold Sanders married Isobel Armstrong on 31 July 1920 in Swan, Western Australia. The wedding was recorded in [7]:-
Sanders-Armstrong. On 31 July, at the Swan Parish Church, by the Venerable C Hudleston, M.A., Archdeacon of Perth, assisted by the Rev A Burton, and the father of the bride, Harold William, eldest son of William Sanders of Adelaide, Western Australia, to Isobel Howell, eldest daughter of Rev J W Armstrong, of Middle Swan.
Shortly after the wedding the couple left Australia on a trip to England where Harold Sanders had been accepted to study the mathematical tripos at the University of Cambridge. In fact studying the mathematical tripos had been his aim for quite a number of years and he had been saving money to fund the trip. He was also granted leave by the University of Western Australia. The couple sailed from Freemantle, near Perth in Western Australia, to London, England, on the Commonwealth arriving on 15 October 1920. He matriculated at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge and was a Wrangler in the tripos examinations of 1922. For his excellent performance he was awarded a prize for Applied Mathematics by Gonville and Caius College. At Cambridge he was taught by leading mathematicians. Ernest W Hobson was the Sadleirian Professorship of Mathematics, Arthur Eddington was teaching relativity, Henry F Baker was the Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry and Herbert W Richmond was a university lecturer.

While the Sanders and his wife were in Cambridge, their first child, a daughter Irma Mary Sanders, was born on 26 February 1922. She was baptised at Great St Mary's Church on 20 June 1922, the family address at that time being 126 Milton Road, Cambridge. After Sanders graduated with a B.A. from the University of Cambridge the family spent several months in Europe, mostly in Germany. They returned to England and they sailed from Liverpool to Adelaide on the Suevic arriving on 15 February 1923. The reason they sailed to Adelaide was because Sanders had been appointed as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Adelaide.

The Department of Mathematics at the University of Adelaide consisted of only two staff, John Raymond Wilton (1884-1944), who was the professor and Head of Department, and Sanders as a lecturer. Wilton had been born in Port Fairy, Victoria, Australia and studied at the University of Adelaide being awarded first class honours in mathematics and physics. He then studied the mathematical tripos at the University of Cambridge and was awarded a B.A. in 1907. After a year at the Cavendish Laboratory and ten years as a Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Sheffield, he returned to Australia in 1920 when appointed as Elder Professor of Mathematics at the University of Adelaide. With the Department of Mathematics having a staff of only two, Sanders had a heavy lecturing load. He taught all the applied mathematics courses and some pure mathematics courses.

Harold and Isobel had a second child, John Veysey Sanders, born in Adelaide on 28 May 1924 [1]:-
From the security of a close-knit family, John Sanders had a sunny and happy childhood. His school education began at Poultney Grammar School, Adelaide, but when the time came to begin his secondary school education he entered St Peters College, Adelaide, as a scholarship entrant. ... John Sanders began his undergraduate career at the University of Adelaide in engineering, but he transferred to physics at an early stage because of a preference for fundamental science rather than applied technology. ... In 1947 he graduated from the University of Adelaide with an Honours B.Sc. degree in Physics, and soon afterwards was awarded a CSIR overseas studentship to work for a Ph.D. degree at the University of Cambridge ... He was awarded the Ph.D. degree by the University of Cambridge in 1949, and then returned to Australia to join the CSIRO Division of Tribophysics ... John Sanders published over 100 original scientific papers, mostly in the areas of surface science, crystallography, solid state physical chemistry, and electron microscopy/electron diffraction. In addition, he made a notable contribution to the study of the microstructure of opal, and he was undoubtedly the leading authority in this field.
We noted above that Harold Saunders' wife Isobel had been awarded a mathematics degree from the University of Western Australia. After the family settled in Adelaide, Isobel taught mathematics for many years at Woodlands, Church of England Girls Grammar School in Adelaide [6]:-
Isobel shared her husband's deep interest in music throughout a long and happy marriage.
Following the death of J R Wilton in 1944, Sanders was appointed as Elder Professor of Mathematics at the University of Adelaide. An article in The Bulletin at this time gives a light-hearted account of his career [3]:-
Adelaide's newest Professor of Mathematics, Harold William Sanders, has been called a collector of scholarships on fair grounds. He started it as a 12-year-old, bagging one entitling him to three years at St Peter's College, where he subsequently was dux. He went through university free on scholarships. Teaching mathematics and physics at Perth Technical College, for seven years, he saved enough coin to go on to Cambridge, but really didn't need so much, since he soon bagged another couple of scholarships. An M.A. of Adelaide and Cambridge, now 51, Sanders went up to the professorship from lecturing in mathematics at Adelaide University. His father was a teacher of the piano in Adelaide, a music critic and church organist, but the professor's a gramophone enthusiast.
Following Sanders' death in 1983, the Obituary [6] was published in the Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society. It ends with the following assessment of Sanders' contributions:-
Although he had outstanding knowledge and ability in mathematics, Professor Sanders never had the opportunity to carry out any original research. This was caused by the extremely large teaching commitment which he carried during his career and, in addition, his heavy work load of examining for the Public Examinations Board of South Australia. He was a gifted and devoted teacher, he took great interest in his students and was unsparing in his efforts to help them with their careers. He will be remembered with affection by many of his students and by his colleagues. A number of his students hold, or have held, professorships in Australia and overseas and several of his students have been elected Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science.
Following his death, a few days short of his 90th birthday, Sanders was cremated and his remains were scattered at the Springvale Botanical Cemetery in Springvale, City of Greater Dandenong, Victoria, Australia.

Other Mathematicians born in Australia
A Poster of Harold Sanders

References (show)

  1. J R Anderson and A E C Spargo, John Veysey Sanders 1924-1987, Historical Records of Australian Science 8 (2) (1990), 77-84.
    https://www.science.org.au/fellowship/fellows/biographical-memoirs/john-veysey-sanders-1924-1987
  2. Harold William Sanders, ancestry.com (2025).
  3. Harold William Sanders, The Bulletin 65 (3368) (Wednesday 30 August 1944), 9.
  4. Harold William Sanders, Application to Enlist in the Australian Imperial Force (8 August 1916).
  5. Harold William Sanders, Historical database of Australian Elites (2025).
    https://www.hdae.org/graduate/Sanders-Harold-William/
  6. J H Michael, Obituary: Harold William Sanders 1893-1983, Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society (Series A) 39 (1985), 143-145.
  7. Sanders-Armstrong, Western Mail (Thursday 26 August 1920).
  8. Sanders, Harold William (1893-1983), Bright Sparcs (2025).
    https://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/bib/P001406p.htm
  9. Sanders, Harold William (1893 - 1983), Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation (26 February 2018).
    https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P001406b.htm
  10. Sanders, Harold William: Student card, The University of Adelaide (2025).
    https://connect.adelaide.edu.au/nodes/view/24995

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Written by J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Last Update December 2025