Dr. Edward John Routh, F.R.S.

Abstract

BY the death of Dr. Routh on June 7, after a of period of gradually failing health, a commanding figure in the recent history of English mathematics has been removed. Born at Quebec in 1831, the son of a distinguished British officer, he was educated in London at University College School, and subsequently studied mathematics under de Morgan at University College. He matriculated at Peterhouse in 1850, but did not drop his London connection, obtaining the gold medal in mathematics with the degree of Master of Arts in 1853, then a somewhat rare distinction. At Peterhouse he had Clerk Maxwell, who soon after migrated to Trinity, as his rival in the same year; while Tait and Steele were undergraduates of the College, and Lord Kelvin (already Prof. W. Thomson, of Glasgow) was a junior Fellow.