Eric Gray Forbes (1933-1984) FRSE FRAS was Professor of the History of Science at the University of Edinburgh.

Life

He was born in

St. Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourt ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

on 30 March 1933. He went to Madras College in St Andrews University and graduated BSc. He then continued as a postgraduate at St Andrews and the University of London gaining a PhD in Astronomy. From 1961 to 1965 he lectured in mathematics and physics at St Marys College in Twickenham. In 1965 he moved to take up a post at the University of Edinburgh and was given his professorship in 1978. He did much research on longitude and navigation in the 18th century and on John Flamsteed former Astronomer Royal, and on the German scientist Tobias Mayer. He made major contributions to the 1980s project, Scotland's Cultural Heritage. In 1984 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. He died in Edinburgh on 21 November 1984. On his death his wife donated a substantial collection of his books to the University of Edinburgh

Family

In 1966 he married Maria Sibilla Lürken, a German linguist. They had a daughter and a son.

Publications

*''The Euler-Mayer Correspondence'' 1751-1755 (1971) *''The Unpublished Writings of Tobias Mayer'' (1972) *''Mesopotamian and Greek Influence on Ancient Indian Astronomy'' (1977) *''The Geodetic Link Between the Greenwich and Paris Observatories in 1787'' (1985) *''Tobias Mayer 1723-1762'' (1980) (German translation, 1993) *''The Correspondence of John Flamsteed'' vol.1-3 (1995-2001) *''Roger Bacon’s Science of Experience''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Eric Gray 1933 births 1984 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of St Andrews Academics of the University of Edinburgh Scottish astronomers 20th-century non-fiction writers