William Parkinson Wilson (late 1825 – 11 September 1874) was an astronomer and professor of mathematics who was born in England but spent most of his career in Australia.Wilson, William Parkinson (1826–1874)

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

, Volume 6, 1976

Life and career

William Parkinson Wilson was born in

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

to John Wilson, a silversmith, and his wife Elizabeth (née Parkinson). He attended

Cathedral Grammar School ("Always Faithful") , established = 1881 , head = Scott Thelning , chaplain = Teresa Kundycki-Carrell , head_label = Headmaster , address = 2 Chester Street West, ...

in Peterborough and in 1843 won a scholarship to

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

where he earned his BA (and was

senior wrangler The Senior Frog Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain." Specifically, it is the person who a ...

) in 1847. In 1849 he became First Professor of Mathematics at

Queen's College, Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

(later Queen's University Belfast). During his six years there he worked tirelessly to establish a Queens College astronomical observatory. In 1850 he published ''A Treatise on Dynamics'' (Hodges and Smith).''A treatise on dynamics''
by W. P. Wilson, Cambridge nglandMacmillan and Co. 1850. OCLC No: 4208520 In 1855 he moved to Australia and, along with

William Hearn William Hearn may refer to: * William Hearn (legal academic) (1826–1888), Australian university professor and politician * William Hearn (umpire) (1849–1904), English cricketer and Test umpire * William Hearn (rower) (1850–?), New Zealand scu ...

, became one of the four founding professors of the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

. He was active in the Philosophical Institute (founded in 1855) and its successor the

Royal Society of Victoria The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) is the oldest scientific society in the state of Victoria in Australia. Foundation In 1854 two organisations formed with similar aims and membership, these being ''The Philosophical Society of Victoria'' (fou ...

. While at his earlier position in Belfast, Wilson had in 1856 advocated Melbourne as the site for a southern hemisphere observatory––long a goal of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. In 1858 he demonstrated a model reflector for the proposed

Melbourne Observatory Melbourne Observatory is an observatory located on a hill adjacent to the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. The observatory commenced operations in 1862 and was decommissioned from official Government work in 1945. The observatory has since contin ...

, and lived to see it open in 1863. He spent the rest of his life as professor of mathematics and astronomy at Melbourne. He is buried in

Mornington, Victoria Mornington is a suburb on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local government area. Mornington recorded a populatio ...

on 11 December 1874. He was 48 years old.William Parkinson Wilson Death and Funeral Notices
Mornington & District Historical Society

References

External links

Physics in Australia to 1945 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, William Parkinson Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Academics of Queen's University Belfast Academic staff of the University of Melbourne 19th-century English mathematicians English physicists 19th-century British astronomers 1826 births 1874 deaths English emigrants to colonial Australia People from Peterborough