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Henry Baker
Times obituary
A PURE MATHEMATICIAN
Dr. H. F. Baker, F.R.S., who died at Cambridge on Saturday at the age of 89, was for 24 years Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Pure Geometry at Cambridge, in which chair he had a great influence on the teaching of pure mathematics in this country
Henry Frederick Baker was born in 1866 and educated at the Perse School, Cambridge. He won a scholarship to St. John's College and in 1887 was bracketed with three others as Senior Wrangler. The following year saw the same group, with one exception, in the first division of the first class in Part II of the Tripos. Baker won the first Smith's Prize in 1889 and in the same year was elected a Fellow of St. John's. He was appointed Cayley Lecturer in Mathematics in 1903 and in 1914 became Lowndean Professor, holding that post until his retirement in 1936. His whole life was thus given to Cambridge.
Although Baker had to pay some attention to pupils studying physics and astronomy, his interests were almost exclusively in the field of pure mathematics. He defended this attitude in glowing terms when presiding over Section A of the British Association meeting at Birmingham in 1913. "The mathematician," he said, "is as sensitive as others to the marvel of each recurring springtime.... Pure mathematics is an art, a creative art.... Pure mathematics is not the rival, even less is it the handmaid, of other branches of science. Properly pursued, it is the essence and soul of them all."
Baker's own contributions to science were made chiefly in his Abel's Theorem and Theta-Functions (1897), Multiple-Periodic Functions (1907), and the six volumes of his Principles of Geometry (1922–33). In the last-mentioned work, he showed broad learning and great resourcefulness. He also edited, as an act of piety towards another great mathematician of St. John's, the four volumes of The Collected Mathematical Papers of James Joseph Sylvester (1904–12). This caused him no little trouble, as Sylvester's notes, done in the rough, needed a good deal of correction. Baker was elected F.R.S. in 1898 and was given an honorary doctorate by Edinburgh University in 1923. He was secretary of the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1897
A PURE MATHEMATICIAN
Dr. H. F. Baker, F.R.S., who died at Cambridge on Saturday at the age of 89, was for 24 years Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Pure Geometry at Cambridge, in which chair he had a great influence on the teaching of pure mathematics in this country
Henry Frederick Baker was born in 1866 and educated at the Perse School, Cambridge. He won a scholarship to St. John's College and in 1887 was bracketed with three others as Senior Wrangler. The following year saw the same group, with one exception, in the first division of the first class in Part II of the Tripos. Baker won the first Smith's Prize in 1889 and in the same year was elected a Fellow of St. John's. He was appointed Cayley Lecturer in Mathematics in 1903 and in 1914 became Lowndean Professor, holding that post until his retirement in 1936. His whole life was thus given to Cambridge.
Although Baker had to pay some attention to pupils studying physics and astronomy, his interests were almost exclusively in the field of pure mathematics. He defended this attitude in glowing terms when presiding over Section A of the British Association meeting at Birmingham in 1913. "The mathematician," he said, "is as sensitive as others to the marvel of each recurring springtime.... Pure mathematics is an art, a creative art.... Pure mathematics is not the rival, even less is it the handmaid, of other branches of science. Properly pursued, it is the essence and soul of them all."
Baker's own contributions to science were made chiefly in his Abel's Theorem and Theta-Functions (1897), Multiple-Periodic Functions (1907), and the six volumes of his Principles of Geometry (1922–33). In the last-mentioned work, he showed broad learning and great resourcefulness. He also edited, as an act of piety towards another great mathematician of St. John's, the four volumes of The Collected Mathematical Papers of James Joseph Sylvester (1904–12). This caused him no little trouble, as Sylvester's notes, done in the rough, needed a good deal of correction. Baker was elected F.R.S. in 1898 and was given an honorary doctorate by Edinburgh University in 1923. He was secretary of the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1897
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