Sir Edward Foyle Collingwood LLD (17 January 1900 – 25 October 1970) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosoph ...

. He was a member of the

Eglingham Eglingham is a village in Northumberland, England, situated about north-west of Alnwick and from Wooler. It lies in the sheltered valley of the Eglingham Burn, a tributary of the River Aln, about above sea level, in a rural conservation area ...

branch of a prominent

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

n family, the son of Col. Cuthbert Collingwood of the

Lancashire Fusiliers The Lancashire Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that saw distinguished service through many years and wars, including the Second Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, and had many different titles throughout its 28 ...

, whose family seat was at Lilburn Tower, near

Wooler Wooler ( ) is a small town in Northumberland, England. It lies on the edge of the Northumberland National Park, near the Cheviot Hills. It is a popular base for walkers and is referred to as the "Gateway to the Cheviots". As well as many shops ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

. His great grandfather was a brother of Admiral Lord Collingwood.

Life

Collingwood was born at his family home, Lilburn Tower, near

, the son of Col. Cuthbert George Collingwood and his wife, Dorothy Fawcett. Collingwood was educated at the

Royal Naval College, Osborne The Royal Naval College, Osborne, was a training college for Royal Navy officer cadets on the Osborne House estate, Isle of Wight, established in 1903 and closed in 1921. Boys were admitted at about the age of thirteen to follow a course lasting ...

, on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

and at Dartmouth Royal Naval College and was commissioned into the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. By arrangement his first service was aboard the

dreadnought battleship The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...

HMS ''Collingwood'' but his naval career was cut short during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

when in 1916 he was invalided out of the Navy following an accidental injury. In 1918 he enrolled to study mathematics at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. His early academic results were not special and in 1922 he moved to Aberystwyth University where he became interested in complex analysis and published a paper relating to Nevanlinna's theory. He was awarded the Rayleigh Prize in 1923 and following the award of the Rouse Ball travelling scholarship in 1925 he spent a year at the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. Collingwood returned to Cambridge and was in 1929 awarded a doctorate for a thesis entitled ''Contributions to the theory of integral functions''. Collingwood left Cambridge in 1937 when he was appointed

High Sheriff of Northumberland This is a list of the High Sheriffs of the English county of Northumberland. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries ...

for that year. He was later appointed Deputy Lieutenant of his home county. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he served in the

RNVR The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

with the rank of Captain and was employed as a naval scientist. In 1945 he was appointed Chief Scientist in the Mine Design department of the Admiralty. For his service he was awarded the

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

. Collingwood returned to mathematics after the war and continued his interest in

meromorphic function In the mathematical field of complex analysis, a meromorphic function on an open subset ''D'' of the complex plane is a function that is holomorphic on all of ''D'' ''except'' for a set of isolated points, which are poles of the function. The ...

and in 1949 published his research on the theory of cluster sets.

Awards and honours

Collingwood was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1954 and of the

Royal Society 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 ...

of London in 1965. He held several professional and civic appointments including President of the London Mathematical Society 1969–70, Chairman of the Council of Durham University from 1953, Chairman of the Newcastle Hospital Board 1953–1968, Vice President of the International Hospital Federation 1959-1967 and Treasurer of the Medical Research Council. He was knighted in 1962.

Family

Collingwood never married.. . 57 "The fact that he held no paid post for most of his life, and that he was unmarried, enabled him to know a large number of people from many different circles which do not usually intersect."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collingwood, Edward 1900 births 1970 deaths 20th-century English mathematicians English scientists Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge University of Paris alumni Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II People educated at West Downs School High Sheriffs of Northumberland Deputy Lieutenants of Northumberland People from Wooler Scientists from Northumberland British expatriates in France