Sir Thomas Muir, C.M.G., F.R.S

Abstract

HEARTY congratulations will be extended by many friends in Great Britain to Sir Thomas Muir, the distinguished mathematician, long resident in Cape Colony, who enters on his ninetieth year on August 25. Born at Stonebyres, Lanark, he was educated at Wishaw School, and he graduated at the University of Glasgow. In 1871, Muir became assistant professor of mathematics there afterwards, for a while, he held a teaching post in Glasgow High School. Opportunity for public service in Cape Colony came in 1892, when he was made superintendent-general of education, retaining office until 1915, and at its termination receiving the honour of knighthood, having previously (1901) been made C.M.G. Muir was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1900. Earlier, the Royal Society of Edinburgh had awarded him its Keith gold medal for researches into the theory of determinants and allied studies, allotting the medal again in 1897 for further work in the same field, and once more in 1916 to signalise the completion of a series of memoirs, all having been issued by the Scottish Society. On the occasion of the first visit of the British Association to South Africa in 1905, also on its subsequent visit in 1929, much active assistance was rendered by Muir towards the success of these gatherings. President, in 1910, of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science an institution then but seven years old Sir Thomas delivered an address on The States Duty to Science. The following pregnant sentence may be recalled: All that the most enlightened State can do will never be fully effective without a continuance of that zeal and devotion on the part of the private worker which has been so conspicuous in the past history of science.