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Ernest Hobson
Times obituary
PURE MATHEMATICS AT CAMBRIDGE
Professor Ernest William Hobson, Sc.D., F.R.S., Emeritus Professor, formerly Sadleirian Professor, of Pure Mathematics, died at Cambridge yesterday at the age of 76. With his death, one of the most familiar and striking figures in Cambridge has disappeared.
As a professor at the university, and in particular a professor of pure mathematics, Hobson came into direct contact with very few undergraduates, and he had long ceased to be a member of the university council; but his indirect influence was none the less real. It was not without its advantage for the university that Hobson had been continuously in residence for close to half a century, but his usefulness was enhanced by vacations frequently spent outside and rendered more profitable by his assiduity in the study of foreign languages and his early marriage to a Swiss wife.
Although a Senior Wrangler, he was more notable as a thinker than as a calculator, and to many people he must be better known by his Gifford lectures on "The Domain of Natural Science" than by his magnum opus, "The Theory of Functions of a Real Variable." As a small child, Hobson was not regarded as particularly gifted. At the age of 13, however, he astonished his family by appearing at the head of the Cambridge Junior Local Examinations, with distinction in Mathematics, Natural Science, French, and Music. In these subjects, indeed, he had been well grounded at Derby School. At about 15, having gained a Whitworth scholarship at what is now the Royal College of Science, he came up to London and studied physics for several months under Dr. Guthrie at South Kensington. He was thus saved from the soul-killing process of continuous example-solving, which most high wranglers, then and since, have undergone as a necessary preparation for Cambridge. He obtained the first mathematical scholarship at Christ's and went up to the University when barely 18. In the Tripos Examination of 1878 he came out Senior Wrangler. The following year he was elected to a Fellowship at his college. From this epoch his career was assured; he married in 1882 and settled down in Cambridge for the rest of his life.
His work consisted of private coaching and in lecturing at Christ's on more or less elementary mathematics for the Pass and Honours examinations. In connection with this work, he brought out a textbook of Trigonometry which possessed a standard of rigour new to Cambridge. He was successful with the better students—Miss Fawcett, "Above the Senior Wranglers" in 1889, was one of them.
Standing out as he did before most of his rivals, it is typical of the want of proper organization at our older universities that it was only by an accidental circumstance—namely, the unexpected withdrawal of Professor Forsyth from Cambridge—that Hobson, his senior by a few years, owed his elevation in 1910 to the Sadleirian Professorship of Pure Mathematics. Before this epoch in his life, his connection with the University, as such, was of the most casual nature; he held, in due course, the usual offices connected with examinations, both at Cambridge and abroad, but, apart from these, the only University appointment he held before 1904 was that of Proctor, which he held twice. In 1903, however, two new University lectureships with almost nominal emoluments had been founded in memory of Cayley and Stokes, one of these was conferred on Hobson, who thus at last became officially connected with Cambridge University.
In the circle of university organizers, Hobson was for many years a personality, serving on boards and syndicates, where he could be counted on for mature consideration of all measures of reform. He was proud to relate how he had been able more than once to restrain the authorities from allowing measures to be slipped through surreptitiously which would have hampered the freedom or efficiency of the University as a whole. On various occasions he represented his university or the learned societies to which he belonged at foreign ceremonies, notably at the Abel Centenary in Stockholm in 1902. He served as a member of the Council of the Royal Society and of the London Mathematical Society for many years. He was president of the latter society (1900-1901) and of Section A of the British Association when it went to Canada (Winnipeg) in 1909. That was the only occasion when Hobson went outside Europe.
Professor Hobson did not confine his attention in mathematics to the narrow range prescribed by his teaching. Certain papers connected with mathematical physics published by him before 1893 were rewarded by his election to the Royal Society as a Fellow. His chief work, however, only began to occupy him early in the present century, and it was in 1906 that his "Theory of Functions of a Real Variable," already referred to, appeared. That was the first compilatory volume on a new and rapidly advancing branch of mathematics, without which not only the best work of the present century, in all domains influenced by mathematical thought, cannot be followed, but without which also the problems and difficulties of the most powerful minds among the ancients remain obscure.
This solid, book of reference, for which the mathematical world owes a debt of gratitude to the author, was soon out of print and out of date. The leisure which Hobson enjoyed after his election to the Sadleirian Professorship enabled him to devote himself to its complete rewriting, and the second edition (1922-25) was twice the size of the first. It is characterized not merely by great breadth of information and by a critical and conscientious consultation of authorities of the most varied nationalities, but more especially by conspicuous objectivity and fairness.
Hobson was by no means what is called "a mere mathematician." He never lost his early interest in natural science and philosophy, and his own reading in these departments was matured by constant social intercourse with the late Professor James Ward, his lifelong friend. He had several other trusted friends with whom he would never tire of talking. Particularly may be mentioned one, H. J. Wolstenholme, a friend of General Smuts, to whom Hobson owed his introduction to the German language, as well as, presumably, that intimate knowledge of the Boer outlook which caused him to be an open pro-Boer during the South African War. In 1914, however, in spite of great personal leanings towards intellectual Germany, Hobson was staunchly on the side of the Allies, and able to send three sons into the defence of the country.
In 1921-22 Hobson held the post of Gifford Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen and took as his subject "The Domain of Natural Science." The choice of the electors was an event in the intellectual world. Having decided to ask a mathematician, Aberdeen did well to invite Hobson, who certainly fulfilled all Lord Gifford's broadminded requirements.
Brought up in rigidly Low Church surroundings—his father was the editor and joint provost of a county newspaper, the Derbyshire Advertiser, and a prominent civic dignitary—the boy seems to have bitterly felt the fetters of dogmatism and resolved to shake them off. Quite early he developed strong views of rationalism, becoming, while still at school, an avowed radical and agnostic. As years went past and he became his own master, these opinions mellowed and, success crowning his achievements, his views took on a comfortable flavor of Kismet; fundamentally, however, he remained true to his early faith. Opinions, theories, and creeds remained to him only conceptual schemes, useful as enabling us to picture to ourselves portions of that which we variously called the World, Reality, Truth. These views, though in opposition to those of many philosophers, were not new, but, with his knowledge of modern mathematics, Hobson was able to put them to himself clearly and forcibly.
The funeral will take place tomorrow; the service will be held in Christ's College Chapel at 2:45 p.m.
PURE MATHEMATICS AT CAMBRIDGE
Professor Ernest William Hobson, Sc.D., F.R.S., Emeritus Professor, formerly Sadleirian Professor, of Pure Mathematics, died at Cambridge yesterday at the age of 76. With his death, one of the most familiar and striking figures in Cambridge has disappeared.
As a professor at the university, and in particular a professor of pure mathematics, Hobson came into direct contact with very few undergraduates, and he had long ceased to be a member of the university council; but his indirect influence was none the less real. It was not without its advantage for the university that Hobson had been continuously in residence for close to half a century, but his usefulness was enhanced by vacations frequently spent outside and rendered more profitable by his assiduity in the study of foreign languages and his early marriage to a Swiss wife.
Although a Senior Wrangler, he was more notable as a thinker than as a calculator, and to many people he must be better known by his Gifford lectures on "The Domain of Natural Science" than by his magnum opus, "The Theory of Functions of a Real Variable." As a small child, Hobson was not regarded as particularly gifted. At the age of 13, however, he astonished his family by appearing at the head of the Cambridge Junior Local Examinations, with distinction in Mathematics, Natural Science, French, and Music. In these subjects, indeed, he had been well grounded at Derby School. At about 15, having gained a Whitworth scholarship at what is now the Royal College of Science, he came up to London and studied physics for several months under Dr. Guthrie at South Kensington. He was thus saved from the soul-killing process of continuous example-solving, which most high wranglers, then and since, have undergone as a necessary preparation for Cambridge. He obtained the first mathematical scholarship at Christ's and went up to the University when barely 18. In the Tripos Examination of 1878 he came out Senior Wrangler. The following year he was elected to a Fellowship at his college. From this epoch his career was assured; he married in 1882 and settled down in Cambridge for the rest of his life.
His work consisted of private coaching and in lecturing at Christ's on more or less elementary mathematics for the Pass and Honours examinations. In connection with this work, he brought out a textbook of Trigonometry which possessed a standard of rigour new to Cambridge. He was successful with the better students—Miss Fawcett, "Above the Senior Wranglers" in 1889, was one of them.
Standing out as he did before most of his rivals, it is typical of the want of proper organization at our older universities that it was only by an accidental circumstance—namely, the unexpected withdrawal of Professor Forsyth from Cambridge—that Hobson, his senior by a few years, owed his elevation in 1910 to the Sadleirian Professorship of Pure Mathematics. Before this epoch in his life, his connection with the University, as such, was of the most casual nature; he held, in due course, the usual offices connected with examinations, both at Cambridge and abroad, but, apart from these, the only University appointment he held before 1904 was that of Proctor, which he held twice. In 1903, however, two new University lectureships with almost nominal emoluments had been founded in memory of Cayley and Stokes, one of these was conferred on Hobson, who thus at last became officially connected with Cambridge University.
In the circle of university organizers, Hobson was for many years a personality, serving on boards and syndicates, where he could be counted on for mature consideration of all measures of reform. He was proud to relate how he had been able more than once to restrain the authorities from allowing measures to be slipped through surreptitiously which would have hampered the freedom or efficiency of the University as a whole. On various occasions he represented his university or the learned societies to which he belonged at foreign ceremonies, notably at the Abel Centenary in Stockholm in 1902. He served as a member of the Council of the Royal Society and of the London Mathematical Society for many years. He was president of the latter society (1900-1901) and of Section A of the British Association when it went to Canada (Winnipeg) in 1909. That was the only occasion when Hobson went outside Europe.
Professor Hobson did not confine his attention in mathematics to the narrow range prescribed by his teaching. Certain papers connected with mathematical physics published by him before 1893 were rewarded by his election to the Royal Society as a Fellow. His chief work, however, only began to occupy him early in the present century, and it was in 1906 that his "Theory of Functions of a Real Variable," already referred to, appeared. That was the first compilatory volume on a new and rapidly advancing branch of mathematics, without which not only the best work of the present century, in all domains influenced by mathematical thought, cannot be followed, but without which also the problems and difficulties of the most powerful minds among the ancients remain obscure.
This solid, book of reference, for which the mathematical world owes a debt of gratitude to the author, was soon out of print and out of date. The leisure which Hobson enjoyed after his election to the Sadleirian Professorship enabled him to devote himself to its complete rewriting, and the second edition (1922-25) was twice the size of the first. It is characterized not merely by great breadth of information and by a critical and conscientious consultation of authorities of the most varied nationalities, but more especially by conspicuous objectivity and fairness.
Hobson was by no means what is called "a mere mathematician." He never lost his early interest in natural science and philosophy, and his own reading in these departments was matured by constant social intercourse with the late Professor James Ward, his lifelong friend. He had several other trusted friends with whom he would never tire of talking. Particularly may be mentioned one, H. J. Wolstenholme, a friend of General Smuts, to whom Hobson owed his introduction to the German language, as well as, presumably, that intimate knowledge of the Boer outlook which caused him to be an open pro-Boer during the South African War. In 1914, however, in spite of great personal leanings towards intellectual Germany, Hobson was staunchly on the side of the Allies, and able to send three sons into the defence of the country.
In 1921-22 Hobson held the post of Gifford Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen and took as his subject "The Domain of Natural Science." The choice of the electors was an event in the intellectual world. Having decided to ask a mathematician, Aberdeen did well to invite Hobson, who certainly fulfilled all Lord Gifford's broadminded requirements.
Brought up in rigidly Low Church surroundings—his father was the editor and joint provost of a county newspaper, the Derbyshire Advertiser, and a prominent civic dignitary—the boy seems to have bitterly felt the fetters of dogmatism and resolved to shake them off. Quite early he developed strong views of rationalism, becoming, while still at school, an avowed radical and agnostic. As years went past and he became his own master, these opinions mellowed and, success crowning his achievements, his views took on a comfortable flavor of Kismet; fundamentally, however, he remained true to his early faith. Opinions, theories, and creeds remained to him only conceptual schemes, useful as enabling us to picture to ourselves portions of that which we variously called the World, Reality, Truth. These views, though in opposition to those of many philosophers, were not new, but, with his knowledge of modern mathematics, Hobson was able to put them to himself clearly and forcibly.
The funeral will take place tomorrow; the service will be held in Christ's College Chapel at 2:45 p.m.
You can see the original newsprint at THIS LINK
