Dr. Benjamin Williamson, F.R.S.

Abstract

THERE has just died at his residence in Dublin Dr. Benjamin Williamson, F.R.S., who was for sixty-three years a fellow of Trinity College. Dr. Williamson was born at Mallow, in the county of Cork, in 1827, and entered Trinity College from Kilkenny College in 1843. In 1852 he was elected to a fellowship of Trinity College, but owing to the stagnation of promotion among the fellows, due to the abolition of the obligations of celibacy and of taking Holy Orders, he die} not become a tutor until many years afterwards. The intervening years were not, however, wasted, and Williamson quickly earned a considerable local reputation as a lecturer who was able to estimate the capacity of his hearers and did not endeavour to teach them what they were unable to learn. In 1872 he published his first work, a “Treatise on the Diffetential Calculus,” which was followed in 1874 by his “Integral Calculus,” both of which have run into many editions and have been used all over the English-speaking world. In 1879 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1884 he became professor of natural philosophy in Trinity College. In the latter year he published, along with Dr. Tarleton, a treatise on dynamics, and in 1893 appeared his last publication, “The Mathematical Theory of Stress and Strain.” The articles “Infinitesimal Calculus,” “Maclaurin,” and “Variations, Calculus of,” in the ninth edition of the “Encyclopædia Britarinica” are also due to him.