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D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
Times obituary
SCIENCE AND HUMANISM
Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, C.B., F.R.S., who died yesterday at St. Andrews at the age of 88, had been for many years one of the most respected and beloved figures in British university life. He was Professor of Natural History at St. Andrews University for more than 60 years, and his contribution to learning covered an unusually broad field of classics, biology, and mathematics.
He was one of the last of the great orators. Whether it was an after-dinner speech, an address on the classics, or a lecture in French at the University of Brussels, there was always a balance of phrase, a choice of epithet, a sense of style that contrasted strongly with the casual and colloquial speeches so often heard. There was nothing pedantic about his oratory, but in all his pronouncements there was that devotion to form which characterized his scientific work. The affection and admiration in which he was held by his younger colleagues was made evident in many ways. In 1945, prominent biologists collaborated to produce a presentation volume of Essays on Growth and Form to commemorate his completing 60 years as professor.
He was born in 1860, his father being a classical master at Edinburgh Academy and later Professor of Greek at Queen's College, Galway. His mother died at his birth. In a letter to The Times some years ago he recalled that in his class at Edinburgh Academy there was one boy who won the Victoria Cross, one with a seat in the Cabinet, one Royal Academician, and four Fellows of the Royal Society. He entered Edinburgh University as a medical student, but after two years won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read Zoology under Balfour and was a demonstrator for a year in Physiology with Michael Foster. Then in 1884, at the age of only 24, he was appointed Professor of Natural History at University College, Dundee, and remained professor until the incorporation of his college into the University of St. Andrews in 1917. Throughout an immensely long period of scholarship he produced works on an astonishing variety of subjects. He is remembered by biologists chiefly for Growth and Form (1917), a work of great intuition, learning, and elegance in which he showed the way towards an exact study of the shape of living things. Much of his time was given to fishery research, and he was very influential in the laborious business of the national and international organization for the regulation of fisheries.
His classical interests found their expression in his glossaries of Greek birds and Greek fishes, and also in many papers and notes to learned journals. He was president of the Classical Association in 1929, a rare distinction for a scientist. He was an ardent correspondent both to individuals and newspapers, and many penetrating and sensitive letters of his appeared in The Times. With all his intellectual distinction, he will be remembered by his friends, old and young, as an outstanding figure and a charming character.
D'Arcy Thompson married Maureen, daughter of Mr. William Drury, in 1901 and had three daughters.
SCIENCE AND HUMANISM
Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, C.B., F.R.S., who died yesterday at St. Andrews at the age of 88, had been for many years one of the most respected and beloved figures in British university life. He was Professor of Natural History at St. Andrews University for more than 60 years, and his contribution to learning covered an unusually broad field of classics, biology, and mathematics.
He was one of the last of the great orators. Whether it was an after-dinner speech, an address on the classics, or a lecture in French at the University of Brussels, there was always a balance of phrase, a choice of epithet, a sense of style that contrasted strongly with the casual and colloquial speeches so often heard. There was nothing pedantic about his oratory, but in all his pronouncements there was that devotion to form which characterized his scientific work. The affection and admiration in which he was held by his younger colleagues was made evident in many ways. In 1945, prominent biologists collaborated to produce a presentation volume of Essays on Growth and Form to commemorate his completing 60 years as professor.
He was born in 1860, his father being a classical master at Edinburgh Academy and later Professor of Greek at Queen's College, Galway. His mother died at his birth. In a letter to The Times some years ago he recalled that in his class at Edinburgh Academy there was one boy who won the Victoria Cross, one with a seat in the Cabinet, one Royal Academician, and four Fellows of the Royal Society. He entered Edinburgh University as a medical student, but after two years won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read Zoology under Balfour and was a demonstrator for a year in Physiology with Michael Foster. Then in 1884, at the age of only 24, he was appointed Professor of Natural History at University College, Dundee, and remained professor until the incorporation of his college into the University of St. Andrews in 1917. Throughout an immensely long period of scholarship he produced works on an astonishing variety of subjects. He is remembered by biologists chiefly for Growth and Form (1917), a work of great intuition, learning, and elegance in which he showed the way towards an exact study of the shape of living things. Much of his time was given to fishery research, and he was very influential in the laborious business of the national and international organization for the regulation of fisheries.
His classical interests found their expression in his glossaries of Greek birds and Greek fishes, and also in many papers and notes to learned journals. He was president of the Classical Association in 1929, a rare distinction for a scientist. He was an ardent correspondent both to individuals and newspapers, and many penetrating and sensitive letters of his appeared in The Times. With all his intellectual distinction, he will be remembered by his friends, old and young, as an outstanding figure and a charming character.
D'Arcy Thompson married Maureen, daughter of Mr. William Drury, in 1901 and had three daughters.
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