MacTutor
Donald Eperson
Times obituary
Priest and mathematician who shared Lewis Carroll's love of puzzles, taught maths to Alan Turing, and conducted in Chichester Cathedral
Despite his personal modesty, Donald Eperson was highly influential—not least as the sixth-form maths teacher of Alan Turing, the father of modern computer programming. But as well as a teacher and mathematician, he was a musician, writer, and cleric.
Countless other teachers came under his influence during his years as senior mathematical lecturer at Bishop Otter College of Education in Chichester, and his work for the Dorset Voluntary Schools Association led to the establishment of voluntary aided primary schools across the country.
He was at various times chaplain of Sherborne School, a vicar, honorary priest at Chichester Cathedral, inspector of religious education in Church of England schools in the Chichester archdeaconry, and canon emeritus of Salisbury. He also composed settings of the psalms for The Anglican Chant Book.
He was a regular contributor to the Times Educational Supplement, providing articles and recreational mathematics for the "Puzzle it Out" pages, and edited the "Puzzles, Pastimes and Problems" pages for more than a hundred issues of the Mathematical Association journal Mathematics in Schools.
Donald Birkby Eperson was born in Gunnersbury, Middlesex, and his talent for maths won him a scholarship to St. Paul's School. From there, he went on to be a scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a first, and studied under T. W. Chaundy, one of the successors to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the maths lecturer who became famous as Lewis Carroll.
He took holy orders at Ripon Hall Theological College, Oxford, becoming ordained deacon in 1930 and priest in 1931. His zeal to educate overtook his vocation to minister, and he started teaching maths at Sherborne in 1927; but within a few years, he was appointed honorary chaplain too.
Alan Turing was one of his first and most demanding sixth-form pupils. Eperson recalled: "In one sense, he was difficult to teach, as he preferred his own independent methods and was less interested in learning 'bookwork' and developing a good style of written work. On the other hand, he was an industrial member of the class who needed no stimulus to exert himself mentally and could readily appreciate the solution that I showed him to any problem that he could not solve "by the light of nature," i.e., by discovering alternative methods of his own devising that are sometimes "clumsy and cumbersome" and sometimes brilliant but unsound. They kept in touch until Turing's untimely death in 1954.
Epherson did not believe in today's narrow focus on an externally determined curriculum. His approach was much more broadly educational and always encompassed his own passions such as astronomy, music, singing, drama, literature, and spiritual development. He established a gramophone library at Sherborne and even persuaded EMI to develop a sound system that would be suitable for a large school hall.
He sang as a tenor in the school chapel choir, encouraged the singing of motets and madrigals, and conducted a small string orchestra that regularly won first prize at the county festival. He was a self-taught pianist and composed an operetta for three baritones, though, as he said, it was performed only once.
In 1932, he celebrated Dodgson's centenary with a paper to the Mathematical Association highlighting the then relatively neglected mathematical achievements of the author of the Alice books.
In 1938, Eperson took up the parish of Charminster in Dorset, where he served as vicar until 1953, training the church choir and conducting various groups of singers. As chairman of Salisbury's diocesan church music committee, he organized concerts and choir festivals, and within his own parish, he produced a stage version of Alice in Wonderland that involved local children, some adults, a pianist, and a percussion band.
In 1939, he was appointed honorary secretary and treasurer of the Dorset Voluntary Schools' Association, which was concerned about the improved condition of local Church England primary schools. It achieved a partnership between Church and State in which the schools remained essentially Church of England in character but were given financial support by the Ministry of Education. This resulted in the system of voluntary aided schools (established under the 1944 Education Act) that exists across the country to this day.
After the Bishop of Salisbury issued an appeal for funds to meet the postwar needs of the diocese, Eperson published The Lewis Carroll Puzzle Book, which raised a substantial sum. He was made an honorary canon of Salisbury in 1951 and canon emeritus in 1953.
Also in 1953, he became chaplain of Bishop Otter College of Education in Chichester, where within a few years he had also become a senior lecturer in mathematics. He also became involved in music again, blending the women's voices of the trainee teachers with men's voices from neighbouring Chichester Theological College. Their performances of oratorios and cantata culminated in performances of Bach's St. Luke Passion in Chichester Cathedral in 1963 and 1964. He also produced a number of film strips for schools, including Alice in Numberland, The History of Calculators, and others, all published by Mathematical Pie, a journal supporting recreational maths in schools. He valued puzzles and problems not just for their fun, but as ways to intrigue and stimulate pupils, and to make them think clearly.
In his next full-time post, as a senior lecturer and honorary assistant chaplain at Christ Church College of Education in Canterbury, Eperson assisted Alfred Deller in establishing a choral group at the University of Kent. He was invited to become an honorary minor canon of the cathedral and frequently sang in the office at the Dean's Evensong. He retired in 1969 but never gave up working. He was perennially active in the Mathematical Association, and in 1988 Blackwells published his Patterns in Mathematics, which was inspired by Lewis Carroll's puzzles but contained many problems and ideas of his own. He went on to become a regular contributor to the journals of the Lewis Carroll Society. As time went on, he lost some of his physical abilities, but his mind was always sharp, and he worked at his ancient typewriter until his last few days, completing his autobiography just before his death.
His wife Phyllis, a mathematics teacher and pianist, died last year.
Canon Donald Eperson, teacher, mathematician, musician, and priest, was born on July 22, 1904. He died on May 13, 2001, aged 96
Priest and mathematician who shared Lewis Carroll's love of puzzles, taught maths to Alan Turing, and conducted in Chichester Cathedral
Despite his personal modesty, Donald Eperson was highly influential—not least as the sixth-form maths teacher of Alan Turing, the father of modern computer programming. But as well as a teacher and mathematician, he was a musician, writer, and cleric.
Countless other teachers came under his influence during his years as senior mathematical lecturer at Bishop Otter College of Education in Chichester, and his work for the Dorset Voluntary Schools Association led to the establishment of voluntary aided primary schools across the country.
He was at various times chaplain of Sherborne School, a vicar, honorary priest at Chichester Cathedral, inspector of religious education in Church of England schools in the Chichester archdeaconry, and canon emeritus of Salisbury. He also composed settings of the psalms for The Anglican Chant Book.
He was a regular contributor to the Times Educational Supplement, providing articles and recreational mathematics for the "Puzzle it Out" pages, and edited the "Puzzles, Pastimes and Problems" pages for more than a hundred issues of the Mathematical Association journal Mathematics in Schools.
Donald Birkby Eperson was born in Gunnersbury, Middlesex, and his talent for maths won him a scholarship to St. Paul's School. From there, he went on to be a scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a first, and studied under T. W. Chaundy, one of the successors to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the maths lecturer who became famous as Lewis Carroll.
He took holy orders at Ripon Hall Theological College, Oxford, becoming ordained deacon in 1930 and priest in 1931. His zeal to educate overtook his vocation to minister, and he started teaching maths at Sherborne in 1927; but within a few years, he was appointed honorary chaplain too.
Alan Turing was one of his first and most demanding sixth-form pupils. Eperson recalled: "In one sense, he was difficult to teach, as he preferred his own independent methods and was less interested in learning 'bookwork' and developing a good style of written work. On the other hand, he was an industrial member of the class who needed no stimulus to exert himself mentally and could readily appreciate the solution that I showed him to any problem that he could not solve "by the light of nature," i.e., by discovering alternative methods of his own devising that are sometimes "clumsy and cumbersome" and sometimes brilliant but unsound. They kept in touch until Turing's untimely death in 1954.
Epherson did not believe in today's narrow focus on an externally determined curriculum. His approach was much more broadly educational and always encompassed his own passions such as astronomy, music, singing, drama, literature, and spiritual development. He established a gramophone library at Sherborne and even persuaded EMI to develop a sound system that would be suitable for a large school hall.
He sang as a tenor in the school chapel choir, encouraged the singing of motets and madrigals, and conducted a small string orchestra that regularly won first prize at the county festival. He was a self-taught pianist and composed an operetta for three baritones, though, as he said, it was performed only once.
In 1932, he celebrated Dodgson's centenary with a paper to the Mathematical Association highlighting the then relatively neglected mathematical achievements of the author of the Alice books.
In 1938, Eperson took up the parish of Charminster in Dorset, where he served as vicar until 1953, training the church choir and conducting various groups of singers. As chairman of Salisbury's diocesan church music committee, he organized concerts and choir festivals, and within his own parish, he produced a stage version of Alice in Wonderland that involved local children, some adults, a pianist, and a percussion band.
In 1939, he was appointed honorary secretary and treasurer of the Dorset Voluntary Schools' Association, which was concerned about the improved condition of local Church England primary schools. It achieved a partnership between Church and State in which the schools remained essentially Church of England in character but were given financial support by the Ministry of Education. This resulted in the system of voluntary aided schools (established under the 1944 Education Act) that exists across the country to this day.
After the Bishop of Salisbury issued an appeal for funds to meet the postwar needs of the diocese, Eperson published The Lewis Carroll Puzzle Book, which raised a substantial sum. He was made an honorary canon of Salisbury in 1951 and canon emeritus in 1953.
Also in 1953, he became chaplain of Bishop Otter College of Education in Chichester, where within a few years he had also become a senior lecturer in mathematics. He also became involved in music again, blending the women's voices of the trainee teachers with men's voices from neighbouring Chichester Theological College. Their performances of oratorios and cantata culminated in performances of Bach's St. Luke Passion in Chichester Cathedral in 1963 and 1964. He also produced a number of film strips for schools, including Alice in Numberland, The History of Calculators, and others, all published by Mathematical Pie, a journal supporting recreational maths in schools. He valued puzzles and problems not just for their fun, but as ways to intrigue and stimulate pupils, and to make them think clearly.
In his next full-time post, as a senior lecturer and honorary assistant chaplain at Christ Church College of Education in Canterbury, Eperson assisted Alfred Deller in establishing a choral group at the University of Kent. He was invited to become an honorary minor canon of the cathedral and frequently sang in the office at the Dean's Evensong. He retired in 1969 but never gave up working. He was perennially active in the Mathematical Association, and in 1988 Blackwells published his Patterns in Mathematics, which was inspired by Lewis Carroll's puzzles but contained many problems and ideas of his own. He went on to become a regular contributor to the journals of the Lewis Carroll Society. As time went on, he lost some of his physical abilities, but his mind was always sharp, and he worked at his ancient typewriter until his last few days, completing his autobiography just before his death.
His wife Phyllis, a mathematics teacher and pianist, died last year.
Canon Donald Eperson, teacher, mathematician, musician, and priest, was born on July 22, 1904. He died on May 13, 2001, aged 96
You can see the original newsprint at THIS LINK
