Lawrence Crawford (sometimes written Laurence Crawford) FRSE LLD (1867–1951) was a Scottish-born mathematician. He was a co-founder of the re-established

Royal Society of South Africa The Royal Society of South Africa is a learned society composed of eminent South African scientists and academics. The society was granted its royal charter by King Edward VII in 1908, nearly a century after Capetonians first began to conceive ...

in 1908 and served as its President from 1936 to 1941. He was an expert on the Lame function,

Mathieu function In mathematics, Mathieu functions, sometimes called angular Mathieu functions, are solutions of Mathieu's differential equation : \frac + (a - 2q\cos(2x))y = 0, where a and q are parameters. They were first introduced by Émile Léonard Mathieu ...

and proved Klein's theorem.

Life

He was born on 14 March 1867, the son of John Crawford of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. He was educated at the High School in Glasgow and then

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

winning three separate bursaries due to his high skill level. He then won a place at

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

where he won the Glyn and Richards Prizes before graduating MA in 1890. He was then elected a Fellow of King's College where he then continued, doing research. In 1893 he moved to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

to lecture in Mathematics at

Mason College Mason Science College was a university college in Birmingham, England, and a predecessor college of Birmingham University. Founded in 1875 by industrialist and philanthropist Sir Josiah Mason, the college was incorporated into the University ...

. In 1899 he moved to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

being offered a professorship in Pure Mathematics at the South African College, and in 1918 moved to the newly created

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

where he remained until retiral in 1938. In 1903 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important ...

, Thomas Muir,

George Chrystal George Chrystal FRSE FRS (8 March 1851 – 3 November 1911) was a Scottish mathematician. He is primarily know for his books on algebra and his studies of seiches (wave patterns in large inland bodies of water) which earned him a Gold Meda ...

and John Sturgeon Mackay. In 1939 the

University of Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

gave him an honorary doctorate (LLD).Biographical Database of South African Science: Lawrence Crawford In 1944 he became a City Councillor in Cape Town. He died suddenly in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

on 5 April 1951 following his return from a public meeting.

Family

He married Annie M. Spilhaus in 1903. They had three sons and two daughters.

Publications

*''On the Use of the Hyperbolic Sine and Cosine'' (1895) *''The Tides'' (1897) *''The Trisection of a Given Angle'' (1898) *''Evaluation of a Determinant'' (1900) *''

Edward Waring Edward Waring (15 August 1798) was a British mathematician. He entered Magdalene College, Cambridge as a sizar and became Senior wrangler in 1757. He was elected a Fellow of Magdalene and in 1760 Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, holding the ...

, eighteenth century Mathematician'' (1942)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Lawrence 1867 births 1951 deaths Scottish mathematicians Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of South Africa People from Cape Town