by Adrian Rice
© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved
Parkinson, Stephen (1823-1889), mathematician, was born at Keighley in the West Riding of Yorkshire and baptized on 7 September 1823, the seventh child in a family of eight children of Stephen Parkinson, a land agent, who died in the boy's infancy, and his wife, Mary, née Ogden, who had to bring up her family on a reduced income.
Parkinson entered St John's College, Cambridge, as a sizar on 25 February 1841. With John Hymers as his college tutor, he was elected to a scholarship of the college. His performance in the mathematical tripos of 1845 excited an unusually lively interest among fellow undergraduates, since the remarkable speed and accuracy of his work resulted in his beating into second place the expected senior wrangler, William Thomson (later the distinguished mathematical physicist Lord Kelvin). However, the order of the two competitors was reversed in the subsequent examination for the Smith's prizes.
After less than two months, in March 1845, Parkinson became a fellow of his college, later proceeding to the degrees of MA (1848), BD (1855), and DD (1868). He also examined for the mathematical tripos in 1849 and 1852. Among his private pupils were the senior wranglers of 1850, 1853, and 1857 (W. H. Besant, T. B. Sprague, and G. B. Finch), and the second wrangler of 1855 (L. H. Courtney).
Parkinson was the author of two mathematical textbooks, Elementary Treatise on Mechanics (1855; 6th edn, 1881) and A Treatise on Optics (1859; 4th edn, 1884). Neither contained any original methods or procedures, being designed to remove difficulties encountered by his students in these subjects. The two works became extremely popular among students and were the standard books on these subjects in use at Cambridge for about a quarter of a century, until superseded by texts with newer methods and presentation.
Parkinson was also college lecturer in mathematics, being gifted with unusual lucidity. One of his pupils later recalled: 'He was the most courteous of lecturers, and though I didn't mean to read mathematics, I felt bound to do my best in return for all his politeness' (Bowling, 356-62). In 1864 he succeeded J. B. Mayor as college tutor, in which capacity he was remembered by his pupils as a skilled and energetic pedagogue, candid and good-natured, but strict if the occasion demanded. Indeed, it was claimed that in all his years at Cambridge he never made a real enemy.
His marriage to Elizabeth Lucy, daughter of John Welchman Whateley of Birmingham, on 15 August 1871 should have resulted in his vacation of the post but, owing to his great success, he was immediately re-elected, remaining until he retired in 1882. In the eighteen years of his tutorship nearly a thousand pupils passed under his care, and 'Parkinson's side' was an important factor in the prosperity of the college.
By virtue of his frankness, sincerity, and academic expertise, Parkinson's standing in the college was extremely high, and on many points 'the Doctor's' opinion was regarded as almost infallible by those who consulted him. A mark of the high esteem in which he was held was his election, in 1865, to the administrative office of college president, although he declined to be a candidate for the more elevated mastership in 1881.
Parkinson took a leading part in university affairs, and was one of the most vigorous and powerful opponents of reform and innovation. He was senior proctor in 1864, and was elected three times in succession to the council of the university senate, on which he accordingly served from 1866 to 1878. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society from 1870. He died at his home, The Hermitage, Newnham, on 2 January 1889, and was buried in Madingley churchyard. His widow married Gerard Francis Cobb, fellow and junior bursar of Trinity College, in 1893.
ADRIAN RICE
Sources
E. W. Bowling, The Eagle, 15 (1889), 356-62
Cambridge Review (24 Jan 1889), 148-9
E. J. R., PRS, 45 (1888-9), i-iii
Venn, Alum. Cant.
C. A. Bristed, Five years in an English university, 1 (1852), 318-27
private information (1895)
Wealth at death
£112,444 13s. 1d.: resworn probate, April 1889, CGPLA Eng. & Wales
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