Dr William Persehouse Delisle Wightman

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1899–1983) was a 20th-century British philosophical author. He was President of the British Society for the History of Science.

Life

He was born on 4 June 1899 in

Streatham Hill Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surre ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the son of Charles Wightman, a

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

merchant, and his wife, Ellen Lodge. He was educated at

Eastbourne College Eastbourne College is a co-educational independent school in the British public school tradition, for day and boarding pupils aged 13–18, in the town of Eastbourne on the south coast of England. The College's headmaster is Tom Lawson. Over ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. He then studied Sciences (specialising in Chemistry) at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

from 1916, graduating BSc in 1922. In 1923 he began as Science Master at

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in the city's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, is now part of the Se ...

. He gained an MSc in 1927 and PhD in 1932. In 1934 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 Sir

Edmund Taylor Whittaker Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker (24 October 1873 – 24 March 1956) was a British mathematician, physicist, and historian of science. Whittaker was a leading mathematical scholar of the early 20th-century who contributed widely to applied mathema ...

Arthur Crichton Mitchell Alexander Crichton Mitchell FRSE (1 July 1864 – 15 April 1952), named in some sources as Arthur Crichton Mitchell, was a Scottish physicist with a special interest in geomagnetics who worked for many years in India as a professor and head of a ...

, Sir

D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson CB FRS FRSE (2 May 1860 – 21 June 1948) was a Scottish biologist, mathematician and classics scholar. He was a pioneer of mathematical and theoretical biology, travelled on expeditions to the Bering Strait an ...

, and

James Pickering Kendall James Pickering Kendall FRS FRSE (30 July 1889, in Chobham, Surrey – 14 June 1978, in Edinburgh) was a British chemist. Life Kendall was born in Chobham, Surrey to soldier William Henry Kendall of the Royal Horse Artillery, and his second w ...

. In 1951 he left Edinburgh Academy to begin lecturing on History and the Philosophy of Science at

Aberdeen University , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

. He retired in 1968 and moved to

Yarnton Yarnton is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about southwest of Kidlington and northwest of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,545. Archaeology Early Bronze Age decorated beakers have been found in the pa ...

near

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. He died on 15 January 1983.

Family

In 1924 he married Mildred Connold who predeceased him.

Publications

*''A Modern Introduction to Science'' (1936) *''Science in Scotland'' (1947) *''The Growth of Scientific Ideas'' (1951) *''The Emergence of General Physiology'' (1956) *''Science in the Renaissance'' (2 vols) (1962) *''The Emergence of Scientific Medicine'' (1971) *''Science in a Renaissance Society'' (1972) *''The History of Ancient Physics'' *''The History of Astronomy'' *''Essays on Philosophical Subjects'' *''Science and Monism'' *''Science of Scotland: The Work of the Scottish Research Institutions''

References

1899 births 1983 deaths People from Streatham Academics of the University of Aberdeen Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People educated at Eastbourne College {{UK-writer-stub