Samuel Hawksley Burbury, FRS (18 May 1831 – 18 August 1911) was a British

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 ...

Life

He was born on 18 May 1831 at

Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Warwick (district), Warwick District in Warwickshire, England, south-west of Coventry, north of Warwick and north-west of London. It lies on Finham Brook, a ...

, the only son of Samuel Burbury of Clarendon Square, Leamington, by Helen his wife. He was educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into the ...

(1848–1850), where he was head boy, and at

St. John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

. At the university he won exceptional distinction in both classics and mathematics. He was twice Person prizeman (1852 and 1853), Craven university scholar (1853), and chancellor's classical medallist (1854). He graduated B.A. as fifteenth wrangler and second classic in 1854, becoming fellow of his college in the same year; he proceeded M.A. in 1857. On 6 Oct. 1855 he entered as a student at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, and was called to the bar on 7 June 1858. From 1860 he practised at the parliamentary bar; but increasing deafness compelled him to take chamber practice only, from which he retired in 1908. He was elected F.R.S. on 5 June 1890. He died on 18 August 1911 at his residence, 15 Melbury Road, London, W., and was buried at

Kensal Green Kensal Green is an area in north-west London. It lies mainly in the London Borough of Brent, with a small part to the south within Kensington and Chelsea. Kensal Green is located on the Harrow Road, about miles from Charing Cross. To the w ...

Contributions

While engaged in legal work Burbury pursued with much success advanced mathematical study, chiefly in collaboration with his Cambridge friend,

Henry William Watson Rev. Henry William Watson Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (25 February 1827, Marylebone, London11 January 1903, Berkswell near Coventry) was a mathematician and author of a number of mathematics books. He was an ordained priest and Cambridge Apo ...

. Together they wrote the treatises, ''The Application of Generalised Co-ordinates to the Kinetics of a Material System'' (Oxford, 1879) and ''The Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism'' (2 vols. Oxford, 1885—9), in which the endeavour was made to carry on the researches of Clerk Maxwell and to place electrostatics and electromagnetism on a more formal mathematical basis. Among many papers which Burbury contributed independently to the 'Philosophical Magazine' were those 'On the Second Law of Thermodynamics, in Connection with the Kinetic Theory of Gases' (1876) and 'On a Theorem in the Dissipation of Energy' (1882).

Family

Burbury married on 12 April 1860 Alice Ann, eldest daughter of Thomas Edward Taylor, J.P., of Dodworth Hall, Barnsley, Yorkshire, and had issue four sons and two daughters. A portrait of Burbury by William E. Miller (1884) is in the possession of his widow."

References

;Attribution

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burbury, Samuel Hawksley 1831 births 1911 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge People from Kenilworth People educated at Shrewsbury School 19th-century English mathematicians 20th-century British mathematicians Members of Lincoln's Inn Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery