MacTutor
Edward Routh
Times obituary
We regret to announce the death of Dr. Routh, who took place yesterday at Cambridge.
Edward John Routh was born at Quebec in 1831. He was the son of Sir Randolph Isham Routh, K.C.B., Commissary-General to the British forces from 1826 until his death in 1858, by his second wife, Marie Lonise, sister of the late Cardinal Taschereau, Archbishop of Quebec. At the age of eleven, Routh was brought to London and placed under De Morgan at University College. His mathematical abilities quickly displayed themselves, and in 1847, when he matriculated at the University of London, a course of unbroken success began. Having carried off two scholarships and a gold medal, he took due course at that institution degrees of B.A. and M.A. He entered Peterhouse, Cambridge, in October 1851, and, despite the competition from Clerk Maxwell, came out Senior Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos of 1854. They were, indeed, bracketed for Smith's Prize, yet this division of the epoils can scarcely be said to have interrupted the even tenor of his triumphs. Elected to a Fellowship of his college, he adopted teaching as his profession, and became the pre-eminent "coach" as the world knew it. Between 1857 and 1888, he trained out of about 700 pupils, 500 Wranglers, 27 being Senior Wranglers, and 41 Smith's Prizemen.
The Cambridge Philosophical, the Royal Geographical, and Geological Societies early opened their doors to him; and his election to membership of the Royal and Royal Astronomical Societies followed as matter of course He aided in the founding of the Mathematical Society of London, was appointed Examiner in Mathematics at the University of London for two quinquennial terms in 1859 and 1865, and became a Fellow of the same body on the nomination of the Crew in 1884. The Universities of Glasgow and Dublin conferred upon him gratuitous degrees in 1879 and 1883 respectively; he won the Adams Prize in 1877 with an essay "On the Stability of a Given State of Motion"; Peterhouse elected him an honorary Fellow in 1888, and he was one of the first to take the degree of D.Sc., established by the University of Cambridge as an incentive to original research. As remarked in The Times on November 5, 1888, he" simply swept the board of the most coveted distinctions in the University for twenty successive years."
Routh married, in 1864, the eldest daughter of Sir George Airy, then Astronomer Royal, and ceased to take any further pupils in 1886. His definitive retirement was celebrated by the presentation to Mrs. Routh, on November 3, 1896, of his portrait by Herkomer, subscribed for by 80 of his former pupils. The scene in the Combination Room of Peterhouse was of singular interest. There were 17 Senior Wranglers present, 13 of whom had been "run" by him. Genuine cordiality animated the enlogiums pronounced on the occasion. Mr. Justice Stirling extolled the modesty of his great master, Lord Rayleigh, for his patience. The case of a student of hydrodynamics was alleged to be typical of the trials to which it was exposed. The treubled undergraduate's primary difficulty lay in conceiving how anything could float. This was so completely removed by Dr Routh's lucid explanation that he went away sorely perplexed as to how anything could sink!
Dr. Routh was a man of the most kindly disposition and was both liked and respected by his numerous pupils. He deeply influenced the mathematical teaching of his time and held strong views as to the best ways of promoting the study. For years he has been a familiar figure in the streets and paths around the University town, but latterly his health failed and he was unable to take his usual walk. The alterations in the procedure of the Mathematical Tripos adopted by the Senate Institute that autumn were a real grief to him, and almost his last appearance in public was at the debate on the proposed courses, when he fought for the retention of the Senior Wrangler.
Routh published in 1855, conjointly with Lord Brougham, "An Analytical View of Newton's Principle." A fifth edition of his "Treatise on the Dynamics of Rigid Bodies" appeared in 1891, and the first volume of "A Treatise on Analytical Statices" was issued from the University Press in the same year.
We regret to announce the death of Dr. Routh, who took place yesterday at Cambridge.
Edward John Routh was born at Quebec in 1831. He was the son of Sir Randolph Isham Routh, K.C.B., Commissary-General to the British forces from 1826 until his death in 1858, by his second wife, Marie Lonise, sister of the late Cardinal Taschereau, Archbishop of Quebec. At the age of eleven, Routh was brought to London and placed under De Morgan at University College. His mathematical abilities quickly displayed themselves, and in 1847, when he matriculated at the University of London, a course of unbroken success began. Having carried off two scholarships and a gold medal, he took due course at that institution degrees of B.A. and M.A. He entered Peterhouse, Cambridge, in October 1851, and, despite the competition from Clerk Maxwell, came out Senior Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos of 1854. They were, indeed, bracketed for Smith's Prize, yet this division of the epoils can scarcely be said to have interrupted the even tenor of his triumphs. Elected to a Fellowship of his college, he adopted teaching as his profession, and became the pre-eminent "coach" as the world knew it. Between 1857 and 1888, he trained out of about 700 pupils, 500 Wranglers, 27 being Senior Wranglers, and 41 Smith's Prizemen.
The Cambridge Philosophical, the Royal Geographical, and Geological Societies early opened their doors to him; and his election to membership of the Royal and Royal Astronomical Societies followed as matter of course He aided in the founding of the Mathematical Society of London, was appointed Examiner in Mathematics at the University of London for two quinquennial terms in 1859 and 1865, and became a Fellow of the same body on the nomination of the Crew in 1884. The Universities of Glasgow and Dublin conferred upon him gratuitous degrees in 1879 and 1883 respectively; he won the Adams Prize in 1877 with an essay "On the Stability of a Given State of Motion"; Peterhouse elected him an honorary Fellow in 1888, and he was one of the first to take the degree of D.Sc., established by the University of Cambridge as an incentive to original research. As remarked in The Times on November 5, 1888, he" simply swept the board of the most coveted distinctions in the University for twenty successive years."
Routh married, in 1864, the eldest daughter of Sir George Airy, then Astronomer Royal, and ceased to take any further pupils in 1886. His definitive retirement was celebrated by the presentation to Mrs. Routh, on November 3, 1896, of his portrait by Herkomer, subscribed for by 80 of his former pupils. The scene in the Combination Room of Peterhouse was of singular interest. There were 17 Senior Wranglers present, 13 of whom had been "run" by him. Genuine cordiality animated the enlogiums pronounced on the occasion. Mr. Justice Stirling extolled the modesty of his great master, Lord Rayleigh, for his patience. The case of a student of hydrodynamics was alleged to be typical of the trials to which it was exposed. The treubled undergraduate's primary difficulty lay in conceiving how anything could float. This was so completely removed by Dr Routh's lucid explanation that he went away sorely perplexed as to how anything could sink!
Dr. Routh was a man of the most kindly disposition and was both liked and respected by his numerous pupils. He deeply influenced the mathematical teaching of his time and held strong views as to the best ways of promoting the study. For years he has been a familiar figure in the streets and paths around the University town, but latterly his health failed and he was unable to take his usual walk. The alterations in the procedure of the Mathematical Tripos adopted by the Senate Institute that autumn were a real grief to him, and almost his last appearance in public was at the debate on the proposed courses, when he fought for the retention of the Senior Wrangler.
Routh published in 1855, conjointly with Lord Brougham, "An Analytical View of Newton's Principle." A fifth edition of his "Treatise on the Dynamics of Rigid Bodies" appeared in 1891, and the first volume of "A Treatise on Analytical Statices" was issued from the University Press in the same year.
You can see the original newsprint at THIS LINK
