Samuel James Taylor, 1929–2020

Abstract

Samuel James Taylor (known as ‘James’) was born on 13 December 1929 in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. He spent most of the first eleven years of his life in Africa, tutored by his mother. James took his first degree at Queen's University, Belfast, and went on to study for a PhD in Pure Mathematics at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, with A. S. Besicovich. He was appointed a Lecturer in Birmingham in 1955 and moved to Westfield College in 1962 as a Reader and from 1964 Professor. The years 1975–1983 were spent at the University of Liverpool, followed by the University of Virginia from 1984 until 1996, when James retired and returned to the UK to settle in Sevenoaks, Kent, remaining active in research. The main theme of his life-time research involved the fine sample path properties of stochastic processes and their Hausdorff measures properties. He is survived by his wife Maureen of 64 years, his four children Richard, Charles, Jonathan, and Helen, seventeen grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.