MacTutor
ANDREW RUSSELL FORSYTH, Emeritus Professor of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensington, died on 1942 June 2. His age just fell short of eighty-four, as he was born (at Glasgow) on 1858 June 18.
He was educated at Liverpool College and at Trinity College, Cambridge. His student career at Cambridge was brilliant: he was Senior Wrangler, and First Smith's Prizeman in 1881, in which year he was elected to a prize fellowship at Trinity. The following year he became professor of mathematics at University College, Liverpool, but two years later, in 1884, he returned to Cambridge as a lecturer of his college and of the university. In 1895 he became Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics at Cambridge in succession to Cayley; he held this post until 1910. In 1913 he accepted the headship of the department of mathematics at the Imperial College, combining the direction of two previously separate schools (one in the Royal College of Science, the other in the City and Guilds Engineering College) headed by Professors Perry and Henrici, who retired nearly at the same time. The Great War of 1914-18, and its aftermath, interrupted his plans for building up a new honours school of mathematics at South Kensington, and he retired from his chair in 1923, after ten years' tenure, on attaining the age limit of sixty-five.
While still in his twenties he attained a reputation as a pure mathematician that extended far beyond the borders of his own university and country. His distinguished researches led to his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society at the early age of twenty-seven, and eleven years later he was awarded a Royal Medal of the Society. In the same year he was President of Section A of the British Association at its Toronto meeting, a distinction which he held a second time in South Africa in 1905. He was President of the London Mathematical Society, 1904-6.
Besides making important original contributions to pure mathematics, he rendered a service of special value to his university in breaking the bonds of the isolation of its mathematical school, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, from the great continental movements of thought in the subject. By his lectures and his writings (he was a prolific author of mathematical books) he widened the knowledge and outlook of his colleagues and students, and stimulated a revival of pure mathematical learning and research in England.
For many years he was regarded abroad as the leader and representative of English pure mathematics, and honours from universities and academies the world over were bestowed upon him. He maintained many personal and official international contacts; he travelled much and was an accomplished linguist.
Professor Forsyth became a Fellow of the Society on 1895 May 10, but was not a frequent attender at our meetings, and never served on the Council. He made one contribution to Monthly Notices in 1921, entitled "Notes on the path of a ray of light in the Einstein Relativity Theory of gravitational effect."
S. CHAPMAN.
He was educated at Liverpool College and at Trinity College, Cambridge. His student career at Cambridge was brilliant: he was Senior Wrangler, and First Smith's Prizeman in 1881, in which year he was elected to a prize fellowship at Trinity. The following year he became professor of mathematics at University College, Liverpool, but two years later, in 1884, he returned to Cambridge as a lecturer of his college and of the university. In 1895 he became Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics at Cambridge in succession to Cayley; he held this post until 1910. In 1913 he accepted the headship of the department of mathematics at the Imperial College, combining the direction of two previously separate schools (one in the Royal College of Science, the other in the City and Guilds Engineering College) headed by Professors Perry and Henrici, who retired nearly at the same time. The Great War of 1914-18, and its aftermath, interrupted his plans for building up a new honours school of mathematics at South Kensington, and he retired from his chair in 1923, after ten years' tenure, on attaining the age limit of sixty-five.
While still in his twenties he attained a reputation as a pure mathematician that extended far beyond the borders of his own university and country. His distinguished researches led to his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society at the early age of twenty-seven, and eleven years later he was awarded a Royal Medal of the Society. In the same year he was President of Section A of the British Association at its Toronto meeting, a distinction which he held a second time in South Africa in 1905. He was President of the London Mathematical Society, 1904-6.
Besides making important original contributions to pure mathematics, he rendered a service of special value to his university in breaking the bonds of the isolation of its mathematical school, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, from the great continental movements of thought in the subject. By his lectures and his writings (he was a prolific author of mathematical books) he widened the knowledge and outlook of his colleagues and students, and stimulated a revival of pure mathematical learning and research in England.
For many years he was regarded abroad as the leader and representative of English pure mathematics, and honours from universities and academies the world over were bestowed upon him. He maintained many personal and official international contacts; he travelled much and was an accomplished linguist.
Professor Forsyth became a Fellow of the Society on 1895 May 10, but was not a frequent attender at our meetings, and never served on the Council. He made one contribution to Monthly Notices in 1921, entitled "Notes on the path of a ray of light in the Einstein Relativity Theory of gravitational effect."
S. CHAPMAN.
Andrew Russell Forsyth's obituary appeared in Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 103:2 (1943), 65-66.