William Gentle

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 ...

(19 January 1877 – 31 March 1964) was a Scottish

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

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

, and headmaster of George Heriot's School from 1926 to 1942. He was President of the Science Teachers Association in Scotland.

Life

He was born in

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

on 19 January 1877 the third child of Marion Drummond Brand from

Torryburn Torryburn (previously called Torry/ Torrie) is a village and parish in Fife, Scotland, lying on the north shore of the Firth of Forth. It is one of a number of old port communities on this coast and at one point served as port for Dunfermline. It ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

and William Gentle (1838–1890), a printer. He was raised at 12 Garland Place in Dundee. He attended Rosebank School then

Morgan Academy Morgan Academy is a Secondary School in the Stobswell area of Dundee, Scotland. History The building was designed in 1862 by the Edinburgh architects John Dick Peddie and Charles Kinnear, opening in 1866 as the Morgan Hospital, a charitable in ...

. In 1889 his family moved to 2 Blackwood Crescent in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, a Victorian flat in the south side of the city. He then attended George Heriot's School going on to study mathematics and other sciences at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, graduating in 1903 with a BSc. He studied geology under Professor James Geikie and mathematics under Professor George Chrystal. In autumn 1903 he returned to George Heriot's School as a teacher of mathematics and physics. 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 ...

in 1908. His proposers were James Gordon MacGregor,

David Fowler Lowe David Fowler Lowe FRSE LLD (11 January 1843 – 17 January 1924) was headmaster of George Heriot's School from 1880 to 1908. Life Lowe was born in Leslie, Fife on 11 January 1843. He was educated locally and then went to the University of Edin ...

, Thomas Burns and

John Brown Clark John Brown Clark or Clarke CBE LLD FRSE (30 April 1861 – 19 July 1947) was a Scottish mathematician. He was headmaster of George Heriot’s School from 1908 to 1926. He served as Vice President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1931–34. Li ...

. 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 as an officer in the

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

, and was wounded by shell-fire at Messines Ridge in 1917. Thereafter he concerned himself with supply of food to the troops, at one point finding himself responsible for feeding 7,000 men. He returned to George Heriot's School after the war. In 1926 he succeeded

as headmaster at a salary of £1,000 per annum. He retired in 1942 and was succeeded by William Carnon. He died in Edinburgh on 31 March 1964.

Family

In 1924 he married Jessie Currie Ainslie.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gentle, William 1877 births 1964 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People from Dundee Alumni of the University of Edinburgh