... he was received into the Roman Catholic church. His faith formed his life. He had close friendships with a number of Dominicans and Benedictines, loving liturgy and theology, especially Aquinas.

This Paper gives a homographic treatment of the perfect, symmetrical optical instrument; discusses its focal planes, principal planes and nodal points; and shows that these latter are sufficient to define uniquely the optical properties of the instrument.

The object of this Paper is to replace the rather cumbrous algebra of Abbe's theory of the symmetrical optical instrument by the more elegant methods of modern geometry.

It was inspired by Smart's lectures on projective geometry and by Whittaker's Cambridge Tract on the classical theory of the same abstract instrument. In Temple's words: "Apart from von Staudt's theory of the metrization of projective geometry and Klein's proof that the only perfect optical instrument is the plane mirror, my paper provides the only application of projective geometry to physics." It may come as a surprise to readers unaccustomed to Temple's cast of thought to see von Staudt's work quoted as a physical application, but this was characteristic of Temple; to him, mathematics was simply the language of physics.

This Paper gives the generalisation of Prof Whitehead's theory of relativity appropriate to the case of a space-time manifold of uniform and isotropic curvature. The general equations of the gravitational and electromagnetic fields are obtained. and these are applied to the discussion of the problems of planetary motion and of the deviation of light rays in the solar field.

Prof A N Whitehead congratulated the Society on publishing the first Paper on this subject from the pen of a young scientist whose work augurs a very distinguished career. The mathematics in the Paper was handled in a way that showed the author to be the master and not the slave of his symbols.

The first part of this paper is devoted to am exposition of a process of integration applicable in particle dynamics on any relativistic theory, and forming the appropriate generalisation of the methods of Hamilton and Jacobi in classical mechanics. In the second part, this method is applied to the problems of planetary motion and of the deviation of rays of light in the solar field according to the theories of Einstein and Whitehead.

Already a common feature of Temple's work was apparent. His approach was to seek out some important problem before it had become popular, to write a few papers laying the foundations for a solution, and to move on elsewhere before the field became overworked.

Temple was elected. He was now 31. His aim was to raise the very low standards to which the department had then sunk. It had come to see its main purpose in terms of its heavy service teaching load and, in agreement with some of the other colleges in the university, a secondary purpose was to teach the existing curriculum in honours mathematics, a course that was some 50 years out of date. In Temple's own words: "I had to proceed with care and caution until Jolliffe retired in 1936 and was succeeded by Professor J G Semple. Jolliffe and his colleague S A White hated research and all my work in changing the character of the department." The first step was to initiate discussions with Louis Filon (and later George Jeffery) at University College. Eventually, an alternative syllabus was agreed between the two colleges and then operated by them but it was a number of years before all the other colleges joined in.

The object of this address is to pass in review various theories of complex numbers and to scrutinise them from the standpoint of the teacher engaged in initiating his pupils into this subject. The material of the address is therefore very elementary and well known and roughly a century old, but it is arranged and combined in a way which may perhaps throw some new light on an old problem. It is important to realise at the outset the fundamental issues which involved; and, although it is undesirable to intrude explicit philosophy into a first lesson on complex numbers, it is well for the teacher to have these metamathematical considerations clear in his own mind. Broadly speaking, theories of complex numbers fall into two sets - those in which the complex numbers are 'described', and those in which they are 'constructed'.

It was for this investigation that Temple learnt to ride a bicycle, in order to get round the airfield quickly. His inexperience and the unsuitability of his figure for the activity combined to amuse his colleagues. It was during his stay in Farnborough that Temple was elected to the Royal Society in 1943, principally for the work on Dirac's equation.

Temple's return to King's in 1945 was a little reluctant, as he correctly anticipated pressure to serve in many administrative capacities both in college and university. He was able to avoid the worst dangers, to continue with his mathematics and to make the department a very happy place with a strong emphasis on research. I recall the very happy atmosphere in the early 1950s. Temple's undergraduate lectures were said to fall into two categories, both of which were delivered without notes. The first happened on days when he had crossed Waterloo Bridge on the way to college by himself; they enlightened and inspired every member of the class. The second occurred when he had crossed the bridge with a colleague; then the better undergraduates had the chance of seeing a first-rate mathematician at work re-creating the subject as the lecture progressed. Aerodynamics still dominated the applied research. The numerous postgraduate students in that field spent much time with the primitive mechanical calculators of the day. Yet each understood very well the importance of his problem and its general structure. The breadth of Temple's mathematical knowledge was a constant surprise and every member of the staff benefited from informed comment on his work. My own interest in Eddington's work made his comments particularly valuable. The overwhelming aspects of his character were courtesy, kindness and wit, so that he was much loved by all.

... those branches of mathematics in which I had been personally involved.

The purpose of this investigation is to carry out the primary part of Hilbert's programme, i.e. to establish the consistency of set theory, abstract arithmetic and propositional logic and the method used is to construct a new and fundamental theory from which these theories can be deduced.

... in recognition of his many distinguished contributions to applied mathematics, especially in his work on distribution theory.

Professor George Temple, C.B.E., F.R.S., is one of the world's most distinguished mathematicians in both applied and pure mathematics. He is the author of many papers and several books which are classics in their field. He is particularly noted for his contributions to a number of branches of fluid dynamics and to the theory of distributions. Recently he retired from the Sedleian Chair of Natural Philosophy at Oxford and is currently visiting a number of U.S. universities. Prior to becoming Sedleian Professor he was Professor of Mathematics for 21 years at King's College, University of London, England. Professor Temple has been associated with Western since 1961 when he was special advisor on the Applied Mathematics program.