Thomas Murray MacRobert (4 April 1884, in

Dreghorn Dreghorn is a village in North Ayrshire, Scotland, east of Irvine town centre, on the old main road from Irvine to Kilmarnock. It is sited on a ridge between two rivers. As archaeological excavations near the village centre have found a signifi ...

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

– 1 November 1962, in

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 ...

) was a Scottish mathematician. He became professor of mathematics at the

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

and introduced the MacRobert E function, a generalisation of the generalised hypergeometric series.

Life

He was born on 4 April 1884 in the manse at

in south-west Scotland, the son of Rev Thomas MacRobert and his wife, Isabella Edgely Fisher. He was educated at

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier *Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia *Irvine Island *Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada *Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotla ...

Royal Academy with his identical twin brother, Alexander, then studied divinity at

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 , ...

but transferred to study mathematics and natural philosophy (physics), graduating in 1905. He then took a second degree at

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

. In 1910 he joined the staff of Glasgow University as an assistant to Professor Gibson, lecturing in mathematics. In the

First World War 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 ...

he served in the

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) ...

and saw active service in France. In 1921 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 ...

. His proposers were Andrew Gray,

George Alexander Gibson George Alexander Gibson FRSE FRCPE (27 January 1854 – 18 January 1913) was a Scottish physician, medical author and amateur geologist. As an author he wrote on the diverse fields of both geology and heart disease. The Gibson Memorial Lecture ...

, James Gordon Gray and Robert Alexander Houston. He was President of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society 1921/22. He resigned from the RSE in 1940. Glasgow University granted him an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1955. He retired in 1954 and died in Glasgow on 1 November 1962.

Family

In 1914, before going to war, he married Violet McIlwraith; they initially lived in a flat in North

Kelvinside Kelvinside is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde and is bounded by Broomhill, Dowanhill and Hyndland to the south with Kelvindale and the River Kelvin to the north. It is an affluent area of Gl ...

in Glasgow. They had three children: Violet, Tom and Alexander. He was a member of the Glasgow

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...

and enjoyed hill-walking.

Artistic recognition

His portrait by

Norman Hepple Robert Norman Hepple (18 May 1908 – 3 January 1994) was an English portrait painter, engraver and sculptor, best known for his portraits of the British royal family. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1948 ...

is held by the

Hunterian Art Gallery The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology M ...

in Glasgow.

Publications

*
''Functions of a Complex Variable''
(1917) *''Spherical Harmonics'' (1927) *''Trigonometry'' (1938) *''Higher Trigonometry'' (1943) *''Spherical Trigonometry'' (1946)
''A Short Introduction to Fine Typography''
(1957)

References

Biography
of Thomas Murray MacRobert * * 1884 births 1962 deaths Academics of the University of Glasgow British identical twins People from Dreghorn Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Royal Garrison Artillery officers Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 20th-century Scottish mathematicians British Army personnel of World War I {{UK-mathematician-stub