Nationality British Name Herbert Turnbull | ||
Born Herbert Westren Turnbull
31 August 1885
Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England ( 1885-08-31 ) Institutions University of St Andrews Notable awards Smith's Prize (1909)
Fellow of the Royal Society Died May 4, 1961, Grasmere, United Kingdom Books The great mathematicians, An Introduction to the Theory of Canonical Matrices, Theory of Equations | ||
Institution University of St Andrews Doctoral students Walter Ledermann | ||
Prof Herbert Westren Turnbull FRS FRSE LLD (31 August 1885 – 4 May 1961) was an English mathematician. From 1921 to 1950 he was Regius Professor of Mathematics at the University of St Andrews.
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Life
He was born in Tettenhall on the outskirts of Wolverhampton on 31 August 1885, the son of William Peveril Turnbull, HM Inspector of Schools. He was educated at Sheffield Grammar School then studied Mathematics at Cambridge University graduating MA..
After serving as lecturer at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge (1909), the University of Liverpool (1910), and the University of Hong Kong (1912), Turnbull became master at St. Stephen’s College in Hong Kong (1911–15), and warden of the University Hostel (1913–15). He was a fellow at St. John’s College, Oxford (1919–26), and from 1921 held a chair of mathematics at the University of St. Andrews.
In 1922 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Arthur Crichton Mitchell, Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker, Cargill Gilston Knott, and Herbert Stanley Allen. He won the Society's Keith Prize for 1923-25 and the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize for 1940-1944. In 1932 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
He was a keen mountain climber and served as President of the Scottish Mountaineering Club from 1948 to 1950.
He died at Grasmere in the Lake District on 4 May 1951.
Family
In 1911 he married Ella Drummond Williamson.