MacTutor
EDWARD LINDSAY INCE was born at Amblecote, Staffs, on 1891 November 30, the only son of Edward Ince, late of H.M. Customs and Excise. His early education was received at Criccieth School and the County School, Portmadoc; the family then removed to Scotland, and his secondary education was completed at Perth Academy, whence he proceeded to Edinburgh University in 1909 to read for honours in mathematics under Professor George Chrystal. Chrystal died in 1911, and it was under his successor that Ince graduated in 1913 with first-class honours. On graduation, he was awarded a scholarship which enabled him to remain in Edinburgh for initiation into mathematical research
After the 1914–18 war, he held lectureships, first in Leeds, and from 1920 to 1926 in Liverpool. In 1926, he was elected to the chair of Pure Mathematics at the newly established Egyptian University in Cairo, where he found it a congenial task to build up a new department and where he proved a most successful teacher and organizer. In 1931, he returned to this country to hold lectureships at Edinburgh (1931–32) and at Imperial College, South Kensington (1932–35); finally, in 1935, he returned once more to Edinburgh as head of the Department of Technical Mathematics, an office which he continued to hold for the few remaining years of his life
Ince's mathematical research, represented by 27 published papers, was devoted largely to the subject of Mathieu functions, the name given to the solutions of a differential equation originally solved by Mathieu in 1868 in connection with the vibrations of an electric membrane. He contributed three papers to Monthly Notices on the general solution of a differential equation (which may be regarded as an extended case of Mathieu's equation), which had been obtained by G. W. Hill in 1877 in his work on the mean motion of the lunar perigee. Ince held that to be an important part of a pure mathematician's duty is to provide tables for the use of physicists and astronomers, and he was well aware that the possibility of constructing such tables without a colossal expenditure of time and energy depends on the progress of theoretical analysis. He realized that in the existing state of Mathieu theory the amount of labour required for the construction of tables was prohibitive, and he set himself to devise new analytical expedients. This he successfully accomplished, and after eight years of devotion to the task he published tables of the characteristic numbers of Mathieu's equation and of the Mathieu functions, with their zeros and turning points, in 1932. It was a splendid piece of work, performed single-handedly save for some help from an Egyptian assistant, and it will be more and more appreciated as the progress of physics and astronomy reveals fresh problems for which these tables provide the solution.
The mastery of the theory of linear differential equations, which he acquired in his work on Mathieu and related functions, is very evident in his large book Ordinary Differential Equations, which appeared in 1927. In two papers published in the last year of his life, he made important contributions to the theory of Lamé's equation. Shortly before his death on March 16, 1941, the Royal Society of Edinburgh awarded him the Makdougall-Brisbane Prize, but he did not live to receive the honour.
In 1924, he married Phyllis, daughter of the late John Fry of Benhall, Suffolk, who survives him with two daughters.
He was elected a Fellow of the Society on December 8, 1916.
E. T. Whittaker
[ Abstracted from the Journal of the London Mathematical Society, 16, 1941, by kind permission of the Editors]
After the 1914–18 war, he held lectureships, first in Leeds, and from 1920 to 1926 in Liverpool. In 1926, he was elected to the chair of Pure Mathematics at the newly established Egyptian University in Cairo, where he found it a congenial task to build up a new department and where he proved a most successful teacher and organizer. In 1931, he returned to this country to hold lectureships at Edinburgh (1931–32) and at Imperial College, South Kensington (1932–35); finally, in 1935, he returned once more to Edinburgh as head of the Department of Technical Mathematics, an office which he continued to hold for the few remaining years of his life
Ince's mathematical research, represented by 27 published papers, was devoted largely to the subject of Mathieu functions, the name given to the solutions of a differential equation originally solved by Mathieu in 1868 in connection with the vibrations of an electric membrane. He contributed three papers to Monthly Notices on the general solution of a differential equation (which may be regarded as an extended case of Mathieu's equation), which had been obtained by G. W. Hill in 1877 in his work on the mean motion of the lunar perigee. Ince held that to be an important part of a pure mathematician's duty is to provide tables for the use of physicists and astronomers, and he was well aware that the possibility of constructing such tables without a colossal expenditure of time and energy depends on the progress of theoretical analysis. He realized that in the existing state of Mathieu theory the amount of labour required for the construction of tables was prohibitive, and he set himself to devise new analytical expedients. This he successfully accomplished, and after eight years of devotion to the task he published tables of the characteristic numbers of Mathieu's equation and of the Mathieu functions, with their zeros and turning points, in 1932. It was a splendid piece of work, performed single-handedly save for some help from an Egyptian assistant, and it will be more and more appreciated as the progress of physics and astronomy reveals fresh problems for which these tables provide the solution.
The mastery of the theory of linear differential equations, which he acquired in his work on Mathieu and related functions, is very evident in his large book Ordinary Differential Equations, which appeared in 1927. In two papers published in the last year of his life, he made important contributions to the theory of Lamé's equation. Shortly before his death on March 16, 1941, the Royal Society of Edinburgh awarded him the Makdougall-Brisbane Prize, but he did not live to receive the honour.
In 1924, he married Phyllis, daughter of the late John Fry of Benhall, Suffolk, who survives him with two daughters.
He was elected a Fellow of the Society on December 8, 1916.
E. T. Whittaker
[ Abstracted from the Journal of the London Mathematical Society, 16, 1941, by kind permission of the Editors]
Edward Lindsay Ince's obituary appeared in Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 102:2 (1942), 66-67.