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EDWIN BAILEY ELLIOTT played a vital but unassuming part in the development of Oxford mathematics. After taking first classes in Moderations and the Final School, he was elected to a Fellowship at Queen's in 1874. As a teacher he gave unsparingly of himself, not only to his more promising pupils, but even to those who were far from brilliant, and this unselfish devotion to teaching continued even after his election to the Waynflete Professorship and his transference to a Fellowship at Magdalen in 1892. After forty-seven years' service as tutor and professor he retired in 1921, being then elected Professor Emeritus.
At a period when research at Oxford was rarer than now, Elliott found time in the midst of his many teaching duties to produce a long series of papers in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, in the Quarterly Journal and in the Messenger of Mathematics. He will be chiefly remembered, however, for his great work, An Introduction to the Algebra of Quantics. This book, though it deals with a branch of mathematics which at the moment is no longer fashionable, has been described by an authority as "a masterly exposition of results due to Cayley and Sylvester, and of those due to Salmon, MacMahon and Elliott himself." His last published paper, written at the age of seventy-five, gave what is generally regarded as the best proof of an important theorem in convergence. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1891, and served for two years on its Council. For many years he was a member of the Council of the London Mathematical Society, and was its president from 1896 to 1898. He was elected a Fellow of the Society on 1893 June 9.
In addition to his research and teaching, Professor Elliott served on many University Boards and Committees. In particular, he was a member of the Board of Visitors of the University Observatory from 1889 to 1926, and served on both the Hebdomadal Council and the University Chest. To these various duties he gave that same painstaking care which characterized all his work, and the University owes him a great debt for his many years of administrative labour.
He died in Oxford on 1937 July 21 at the age of eighty-six, having been predeceased by his wife who had died only two months before.
At a period when research at Oxford was rarer than now, Elliott found time in the midst of his many teaching duties to produce a long series of papers in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, in the Quarterly Journal and in the Messenger of Mathematics. He will be chiefly remembered, however, for his great work, An Introduction to the Algebra of Quantics. This book, though it deals with a branch of mathematics which at the moment is no longer fashionable, has been described by an authority as "a masterly exposition of results due to Cayley and Sylvester, and of those due to Salmon, MacMahon and Elliott himself." His last published paper, written at the age of seventy-five, gave what is generally regarded as the best proof of an important theorem in convergence. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1891, and served for two years on its Council. For many years he was a member of the Council of the London Mathematical Society, and was its president from 1896 to 1898. He was elected a Fellow of the Society on 1893 June 9.
In addition to his research and teaching, Professor Elliott served on many University Boards and Committees. In particular, he was a member of the Board of Visitors of the University Observatory from 1889 to 1926, and served on both the Hebdomadal Council and the University Chest. To these various duties he gave that same painstaking care which characterized all his work, and the University owes him a great debt for his many years of administrative labour.
He died in Oxford on 1937 July 21 at the age of eighty-six, having been predeceased by his wife who had died only two months before.
Edwin Bailey Elliott's obituary appeared in Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 98:4 (1938), 246-247.