by E. I. Carlyle, rev. Julia Tompson
© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved
Frost, Percival (1817-1898), mathematician, was born at Kingston upon Hull on 1 September 1817, the second son of Charles Frost (bap. 1782, d. 1862), a lawyer and antiquary, and his wife, Jane. He was educated at Beverley and Oakham schools and entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in October 1835, quickly transferring to St John's. He graduated BA as second wrangler in 1839 and MA in 1842. He was chosen first Smith prizeman in 1839, beating the senior wrangler, Benjamin Morgan Cowie, also of St John's College, and he was elected a fellow of the college on 19 March. In 1841 he was ordained deacon, and in the same year vacated his fellowship on his marriage, in Finchley on 2 June, to Jennett Louise, the daughter of Richard Dixon of Oak Lodge, Finchley. They had a son, Charles Frost (c.1842-1906), a clergyman, who later (1876) adopted the surname Foster, on leaving the church to take up legal training. Frost held a mathematical lectureship in Jesus College from 1847 to 1859, and in King's College from 1859 to 1889; but his principal work consisted in the tuition of private pupils, among whom were John Rigby, William Kingdon Clifford, and Joseph Wolstenholme.
In 1854 Frost edited the first three sections of book 1 of Newton's Principia, and in 1863 he prepared, in conjunction with Joseph Wolstenholme, A Treatise on Solid Geometry, later editions of which were by Frost alone. Both of these publications became well-known textbooks. He also wrote numerous minor papers on algebra, analytical geometry, electricity and magnetism, and the theory of the solar system. In 1883 Frost was elected by King's College, Cambridge, to a fellowship (which he retained until his death) and awarded the recently established degree of DSc. On 7 June the same year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He was a man of wide interests and varied attainments, an accomplished piano player, and a successful watercolour painter. He was remembered by his contemporaries as cheerful and considerate, always ready to see the humour in any situation. He died at Cambridge on 5 June 1898, at his house at 15 Fitzwilliam Street, and was buried on 10 June in the Mill Road cemetery.
E. I. CARLYLE, rev. JULIA TOMPSON
Sources
H. M. T., PRS, 64 (1898-9), vii-viii
H. A. Morgan, The Eagle, 20 (1899), 445-8
Cambridge Review (16 June 1898), 405
Men and women of the time (1895)
Venn, Alum. Cant.
Likenesses
Maull & Fox, sepia photograph, 1891-2, RS
Wealth at death
£11,857 18s. 0d.: resworn probate, Nov 1898, CGPLA Eng. & Wales
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