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Arthur Lee Dixon
Times obituary
MATHEMATICS AT OXFORD
Professor A. L. Dixon, F.R.S., for many years Waynflete Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Oxford, died at Folkestone on Sunday at the age of 87.
Arthur Lee Dixon, the second son of the Rev. G. T. Dixon, Wesleyan minister of Northallerton, was born on November 27, 1867. He was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, and at Worcester College, Oxford. In 1891 he was elected Prize Fellow and in 1898 Tutorial Fellow of Merton College. He became Waynflete Professor of Pure Mathematics at the university in 1922 and retired in 1945. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1912, he was president of the London Mathematical Society for the term 1924-25 He wrote and lectured principally on algebra and algebraic geometry, including such topics as algebraic eliminants, lines on a cubic surface, and elliptic functions; his original work appeared in publications of the Royal Society, the London Mathematical Society, and in the Oxford Quarterly Journal of Mathematics. Like many dons of his generation, he never wrote a book.
He was a man of great physical strength; thus, he delighted to crack walnuts in the crook of his arm and, as a member of "Godley's Army" in the 1914-18 War, was made much use of at the Didcot Ordnance Depot. With this, he was essentially a man of peace, loathing all quarrels. When conflicts of a personal character threatened to arise between colleagues, he would shrink into silence; even in disputes of a mathematical nature, he was reluctant to take part, though (as one learned privately) he held clear and definite views on many of them. Dixon was an accomplished performer on the flute and, in earlier years, played regularly with the local orchestral society. He was a genial personality, but with a certain oracular reserve. In mathematics, he strove to preserve something of what seemed a more staid and sober tradition, and his passing breaks a last link with the mathematics of Victorian Oxford.
He married Hélène, the eldest daughter of M. Léon Rieder, of Paris; she predeceased him in 1930, leaving one daughter. His elder brother, A. C. Dixon, F.R.S., who died in 1936, was also a mathematician of distinction, graduating from Cambridge and holding the Chair of Mathematics at Queen's University, Belfast.
MATHEMATICS AT OXFORD
Professor A. L. Dixon, F.R.S., for many years Waynflete Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Oxford, died at Folkestone on Sunday at the age of 87.
Arthur Lee Dixon, the second son of the Rev. G. T. Dixon, Wesleyan minister of Northallerton, was born on November 27, 1867. He was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, and at Worcester College, Oxford. In 1891 he was elected Prize Fellow and in 1898 Tutorial Fellow of Merton College. He became Waynflete Professor of Pure Mathematics at the university in 1922 and retired in 1945. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1912, he was president of the London Mathematical Society for the term 1924-25 He wrote and lectured principally on algebra and algebraic geometry, including such topics as algebraic eliminants, lines on a cubic surface, and elliptic functions; his original work appeared in publications of the Royal Society, the London Mathematical Society, and in the Oxford Quarterly Journal of Mathematics. Like many dons of his generation, he never wrote a book.
He was a man of great physical strength; thus, he delighted to crack walnuts in the crook of his arm and, as a member of "Godley's Army" in the 1914-18 War, was made much use of at the Didcot Ordnance Depot. With this, he was essentially a man of peace, loathing all quarrels. When conflicts of a personal character threatened to arise between colleagues, he would shrink into silence; even in disputes of a mathematical nature, he was reluctant to take part, though (as one learned privately) he held clear and definite views on many of them. Dixon was an accomplished performer on the flute and, in earlier years, played regularly with the local orchestral society. He was a genial personality, but with a certain oracular reserve. In mathematics, he strove to preserve something of what seemed a more staid and sober tradition, and his passing breaks a last link with the mathematics of Victorian Oxford.
He married Hélène, the eldest daughter of M. Léon Rieder, of Paris; she predeceased him in 1930, leaving one daughter. His elder brother, A. C. Dixon, F.R.S., who died in 1936, was also a mathematician of distinction, graduating from Cambridge and holding the Chair of Mathematics at Queen's University, Belfast.
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