Robert Forsyth Scott
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Sir Robert Forsyth Scott (28 July, 1849 – 18 November, 1933) was a mathematician, barrister and Master of St John's College, Cambridge
Life[]
Scott was born in Leith, near Edinburgh, the eldest son of Reverend George Scott, a Minister in the church at Dairsie and Mary Forsyth, daughter of the Edinburgh advocate Robert Forsyth.[1]
Scott was educated at the High School, Edinburgh, then in Stuttgart before becoming a student at University College, London. In 1870, while a student at University College, London, he was awarded a Whitworth Exhibition. He went on to read mathematics at St John's College, where he was fourth wrangler in the Tripos in 1875 and was elected to a fellowship in 1877.[2][3]
After publishing The Theory of Determinants and Their Applications in 1880, Scott turned his attention to the law, become a barrister in 1883, and to institutional history, including histories of St. John's College, Cambridge, published between 1882 and 1907.[1][3] In 1908 he was appointed as the Master of St John's College, a position he held until his death in Cambridge in 1933, and from 1910 to 1912 he served as Vice-chancellor of the University. On his death he left the library of St John's one of the largest collection of Burmese manuscripts in Europe.[3]
He was the elder brother of Sir James George Scott.
Publications[]
- History of St John's College, Cambridge
- The theory of determinants and their applications (2nd ed., revised by George Ballard Mathews), Cambridge University Press, 1904.
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Biography of Robert Forsyth Scott
- ^ "Scott, Robert Forsyth (SCT871RF)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Digitization of History: Centre for History and Economics
External links[]
- 1849 births
- 1933 deaths
- Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
- Scottish mathematicians
- 19th-century English mathematicians
- Members of Lincoln's Inn
- Masters of St John's College, Cambridge
- Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge