by Frank A. J. L. James
© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved
Whitrow, Gerald James (1912-2000), mathematician, historian, and philosopher of science, was born on 9 June 1912 at Kimmeridge, Dorset, the eldest son of George William Whitrow (1875-1953), a farmer, and his wife, Emily, formerly Watkins (1872-1955). In 1916 the family moved to Clapham, London. His father became a clerk in Harrods and Whitrow attended Wix's Lane School. He was a very clever child, and at the age of six preferred reading books to playing games. He won a London county council scholarship to Christ's Hospital, Horsham, which he attended from 1923 to 1930. He so impressed one of the school's examiners, Theodore William Chaundy (1889-1966), a fellow of Christ Church, Oxford, that he was offered a scholarship there. He went up in 1930, and took a double first degree in 1933 (MA 1937).
At Oxford Whitrow came under the influence of the astrophysicist E. A. Milne (1896-1950), the first Rouse Ball professor of mathematics, with whom he worked on kinematic relativity theory as a senior university student between 1933 and 1935. Milne and Whitrow developed the idea of functional square roots, and collaborated closely until Milne's death. In 1936 Whitrow was appointed a research lecturer at Christ Church with a glowing testimonial from Milne, who ranked him 'as a first-class investigator'. He took his DPhil in 1938. His interest in the history and philosophy of science began while he was an undergraduate. In 1931 he attended the second International Congress of the History of Science in London, at which the Soviet delegation made a great impact with its view about the nature of science. In 1938 he published his first historical paper on the natural philosopher Robert Hooke (1635-1703), himself a former member of Christ Church.
During the Second World War Whitrow worked on ballistics for the Ministry of Supply, armaments research department. In 1945 he was appointed assistant lecturer in mathematics at Imperial College, London. In the following year he became a full lecturer and on 17 August married Annie Magda Mostel, a librarian and bibliographer. They had no children and enjoyed a remarkably happy marriage, living first in Battersea and from 1967 in Wimbledon. Appointed reader in applied mathematics (1951), he eventually became professor of the history and applications of mathematics (1972). After his retirement in 1979 he remained at the college as a senior research fellow for a number of years. He was an excellent lecturer, his clear intonation matched by the clarity of his exposition. Furthermore, he took part in the running of the college and university and served as college orator from 1972 to 1974.
At Imperial Whitrow fulfilled his early promise with more than a hundred papers and ten books. He was most appreciated by his research students, many of whom went on to distinguished careers in mathematics and science. During his career he made a considerable impact on the philosophy and mathematics of time, associating with such notable scholars as Karl Popper and the Indian astrophysicist and Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
Whitrow believed that science should have a broad audience and thus ensured that much of his work was accessible to non-specialists; to this end he gave school talks on the radio, worked on Open University programmes, and talked to undergraduate societies. He published in astrophysics, cosmology, and the history and philosophy of time. His first book was The Structure of the Universe (1949), and his last was Time in History (1988). With H. Bondi, W. B. Bonnor, and R. A. Lyttelton he wrote Rival Theories of Cosmology (1960), which formed part of the debate between the steady-state and big-bang theorists of the universe. Whitrow tended to support the latter theory. His Einstein: the Man and his Achievement (1967) was based on a series of radio talks; another such series, 'The nature of time', was published as What is Time? (1972). However, The Natural Philosophy of Time (1960) was his major contribution to the subject. In this he examined time from every aspect--mathematical, cosmological, historical, biological, and psychological.
Whitrow was active in a number of societies. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1940 and was vice-president from 1965 to 1967. His most important contribution to the society was to reorganize its important library and archives while chairman of the library committee in the 1960s and 1970s, and for many years he was the leading light of the society's dining club. He was an early member of the British Society for the History of Science, serving as president from 1968 to 1970; he was president of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science from 1955 to 1957, and was the founding president of the British Society for the History of Mathematics in 1971. He also played important roles in the Athenaeum and the Wimbledon Literary and Scientific Society.
A kind and polite man with very high personal standards, Whitrow died after a long illness at Queen's Court Nursing Home, 32-4 Queens Road, Wimbledon, on 2 June 2000, survived by his wife. His ashes were scattered on Christ Church Meadow on 12 June.
FRANK A. J. L. JAMES
Sources
F. A. J. L. James, 'Gerald James Whitrow', Astronomy and Geophysics, 42/2 (2001), 35-6
Daily Telegraph (18 June 2000)
The Times (23 June 2000)
personal knowledge (2004)
private information (2004) [family]
b. cert.
m. cert.
d. cert.
Archives
ICL, papers | Athenaeum, London
Bodl. Oxf., Milne papers
CAC Cam., Bondi papers
London School of Economics, Popper papers
RAS
Sci. Mus., British Society for the History of Science papers FILM Open University archives SOUND BBC talks archives
Likenesses
photographs, priv. coll.
photographs, ICL
Wealth at death
£210,000: probate, 16 Nov 2000, CGPLA Eng. & Wales
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