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JAMES COCKLE was born on 14 January 1819, being the second son of the late James Cockle, formerly of Great Oakley, Essex. He was educated at Charterhouse (1829-31), and afterwards by private tuition. He left England in 1835 November, for a year's sojourn in the West Indies and the United States. On 18 October 1837, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1841 (Stokes' year) as 33rd Wrangler. His subsequent eminence as a mathematician is thus a considerable encouragement to those whose position in the Tripos falls short of their expectations. Mr. Cockle was entered as a student at the Middle Temple in 1838, and practiced as a special pleader, 1845-49; He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple on 6 November 1846 and joined the Midland Circuit at the Nottingham Spring Assizes in 1848. In 1862 April he draughted the "Jurisdiction in Homicides Act" (Imperial). From 1863 to 1879 he was Chief Justice of Queensland and was knighted in 1869. He was Senior Commissioner for the consolidation of the Statute law of Queensland. He returned to England in 1879, and from that time until his death his leisure time was devoted to the writing of mathematical papers and the affairs of several learned societies. He was elected a Fellow of this Society on 10 March 1854 and served on the Council from 1888 to 1892. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 1 June 1865 and of the London Mathematical Society on 9 June 1870, filling the Presidential Chair from 1886 to 1888. He was President of the Queensland Philosophical Society from 1863 to 1879 and was an honorary member of the Royal Society of New South Wales.
His mathematical papers number more than eighty and, with the exception of four on the motion of fluids, deal entirely with pure mathematics
In the Savage Club (London), of which he was treasurer from 1884 to 1889, it was a familiar sight to see him quietly working at some algebraical research on the back of an envelope or some odd scrap of paper, though always ready to break off and offer a genial welcome to one of his friends. On committees or councils he was singularly reticent, rarely venturing a suggestion unless appealed to, but the regularity of his attendance testified to the keen interest he took in the management of business. He was a commissioner for the Queensland section of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition held in London in 1886; and was nominated to represent the Australian colonies at the Washington Prime Meridian Conference in 1884, but was unable to accept the position.
Sir James Cockle died at his London residence on Sunday, January 27, 1895. He leaves a widow and eight children
His mathematical papers number more than eighty and, with the exception of four on the motion of fluids, deal entirely with pure mathematics
In the Savage Club (London), of which he was treasurer from 1884 to 1889, it was a familiar sight to see him quietly working at some algebraical research on the back of an envelope or some odd scrap of paper, though always ready to break off and offer a genial welcome to one of his friends. On committees or councils he was singularly reticent, rarely venturing a suggestion unless appealed to, but the regularity of his attendance testified to the keen interest he took in the management of business. He was a commissioner for the Queensland section of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition held in London in 1886; and was nominated to represent the Australian colonies at the Washington Prime Meridian Conference in 1884, but was unable to accept the position.
Sir James Cockle died at his London residence on Sunday, January 27, 1895. He leaves a widow and eight children
James Cockle's obituary appeared in Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 55.4 (1895), 192.