Prof Ernest George Coker FRS FRSE MIME MICE Wh.Ex. (1869–1946) was a British mathematician and engineer. He won the

Howard N. Potts Medal The Howard N. Potts Medal was one of The Franklin Institute Awards for science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named for Howard N. Potts. The first Howard N. Potts Medal was awarded in ...

for Physics in 1922, and the Rumford Medal for work on polarised light in 1936. He was an expert on stress analysis and

Photoelasticity Photoelasticity describes changes in the optical properties of a material under mechanical deformation. It is a property of all dielectric media and is often used to experimentally determine the stress distribution in a material, where it gives ...

. He contributed to

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

and other works under the initials E.G.C.

Life

He was born on 26 April 1869 in

Wolverton Wolverton is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, England. It is located at the northern edge of Milton Keynes, beside the West Coast Main Line, the Grand Union Canal and the river Great Ouse. It is the administrative seat of Wolverton and G ...

in Buckinghamshire the son of George Coker, an engine-fitter, and his wife, Sarah Tompkins. His birthplace is often wrongly stated as

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

. He was educated at a private school at Stony Stratford. In 1890 he won a Whitworth Scholarship allowing him to study at the Royal College of Science in London and then both the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

and Peterhouse, Cambridge where he graduated with a Mechanical Sciences Tripos in 1896. His early jobs included Assistant Examiner of Patents at H M Patent Office in London. In 1898 he won the post of Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

. Coker returned to Britain, and in 1901 he received a DSc from the

. In 1905 he took the role of Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics at Finsbury Technical College, then in 1914 got the chair in Civil and Mechanical Engineering at University College, London (now UCL). He received honorary doctorates from three universities:

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, Sydney and Louvain. In 1903 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and 1916 a Fellow of the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. In 1921 he was awarded a

Telford Medal The Telford Medal is a prize awarded by the British Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) for a paper or series of papers. It was introduced in 1835 following a bequest made by Thomas Telford, the ICE's first president. It can be awarded in gold ...

by the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

and in 1922, in recognition of his work on the photo-elastic method of measuring stress, a Howard N. Potts gold medal for physics by the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

. In 1924 he was an Invited Speaker of the ICM in Toronto. He retired in 1934 and became President of the Whitworth Society a year later in 1935. Coker died at The Gables, Wheatfield Road in

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire Subdivisions of Scotland, council area and the historic Shires of Scotlan ...

on 9 April 1946.https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37747/page/4970/data.pdf

Family

He married Alice Mary King (d.1941) in 1899.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coker, Ernest George 1869 births 1946 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh English civil engineers Alumni of the University of Edinburgh People from Milton Keynes