Early life and education Edmund Taylor Whittaker was born in
Southport, in
Lancashire, the son of Selina Septima (
née Taylor) and John Whittaker.
Ernest Barker, a classmate of Whittaker's at the Grammar School with whom he shared the office of
prefect, later recalled his personality: "He had a gay, lively, bubbling spirit: he was ready for every prank: he survives in my memory as a natural actor; and I think he could also, on occasion, produce a merry poem." While at the school, Whittaker studied on the "classical side", devoting three-fifths of his time to Latin and Greek. He entered Trinity College as a minor scholar in October 1892 to study mathematics. Whittaker was the pupil of
Andrew Russell Forsyth and
George Howard Darwin while at Trinity College and received tutoring throughout his first two years. With an interest more in applied than pure mathematics, Whittaker won the Sheepshanks Astronomical Exhibition in 1894 as an undergraduate. The
Senior Wrangler that year was
Thomas John I'Anson Bromwich and Whittaker tied
John Hilton Grace for second, all three along with three other participants, including
Bertram Hopkinson, went on to be elected Fellows of the Royal Society. He also received the
Tyson Medal for Mathematics and Astronomy in 1896.
Career Whittaker was a fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge from 1896 to 1906 when he was appointed
Andrews Professor of Astronomy at
Trinity College Dublin and Royal Astronomer of Ireland. He held these posts until 1912, when he was appointed chair of mathematics at the
University of Edinburgh, a role he went on to hold for just over a third of a century. Throughout his career, he wrote papers on automorphic functions and special functions in pure mathematics as well as on electromagnetism, general relativity, numerical analysis and astronomy in applied mathematics and physics, and was also interested in topics in biography, history, philosophy and theology. He also wrote several celebrated books in his early career, publishing
A Course of Modern Analysis in 1902 and following it up with
A Treatise on the Analytical Dynamics of Particles and Rigid Bodies just two years later in 1904. In September of that year, Whittaker was forced to sell six
silver forks at an auction to pay back taxes which he had previously refused to pay due to the
Education Act 1902 requiring citizens to pay taxes to fund local Christian schools, such as the
Roman Catholic Church and the
Church of England. Prior to being compelled by a magistrate to repay the tax burden, Whittaker was one of several activists who engaged in
passive resistance by refusing to pay the taxes. Also during this time, he wrote the book
The Theory of Optical Instruments, published six astronomy papers, and published collected astronomical observations. Whittaker began holding "research lectures" in mathematics at the university, typically given twice a week.
Freeman Dyson commented on Whittaker's lecture style by saying that students were "warmed, not only by the physical presence of a big crowd packed together, but by the mental vigour and enthusiasm of the old man". Whittaker's efforts helped transform the
Edinburgh Mathematical Society from a teachers society to an academic research society and was a major driving force in introducing
computational mathematics education to the UK and America. Shortly after coming to
Edinburgh, Whittaker established the Edinburgh Mathematical Laboratory, one of the UK's first mathematical laboratories. The laboratory was the first attempt of a systematic treatment of
numerical analysis in Great Britain and friends of Whittaker have said he believes it to be his most notable contribution to the education of mathematics. The laboratory program was so successful, it resulted in many requests for an extra summer course to allow others to attend who previously were unable, ultimately leading to the establishment of a colloquium through the
Edinburgh Mathematical Society. In 1913, Whittaker established the
Edinburgh Mathematical Society Colloquium and the first was held over five days in August of that year.
Fellowships and academic positions Outside of the Royal Astronomer of Ireland and his roles in the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Whittaker held several notable academic posts, including president of the
Mathematical Association from 1920 through 1921, president of the Mathematical and Physical Section (Section A) of the
British Science Association in 1927, and was president of the
London Mathematical Society from 1928 through 1929. He was elected either Honorary Fellow or Foreign Member in a number of academic organisations, including the in 1922, the Societa Reale di Napoli in 1936, the
American Philosophical Society in 1944, the
Académie royale de Belgique in 1946, the
Faculty of Actuaries in 1918, the Benares Mathematical Society in 1920, the
Indian Mathematical Society in 1924, and the
Mathematical Association in 1935. In 1956, he was elected as a corresponding member of the Geometry section of the
French Academy of Sciences a few days before his death. Whittaker was also awarded honorary doctorates from several universities, including two
LLDs from the
University of St Andrews in 1926 and the
University of California in 1934, an
ScD from the
Trinity College Dublin in 1906, and two
D.Sc.s from the
National University of Ireland in 1939 and
University of Manchester in 1944. In relation to that,
Pope Pius XI awarded him with the
Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in 1935 and appointed him to the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936. that in these books, Whittaker was "the only physical scientist of the first rank" who defended the strong entropic creation argument, which holds that as
entropy always increases, the Universe must have started at a point of minimum entropy, which they argue implies the existence of a god. Whittaker published several articles which draw connections between science, philosophy and theism between 1947 and 1952 in the BBC magazine
The Listener, one of which
Religion and the nature of the universe was republished in
American Vogue, making him "a rare, if not unique, example of a man whose published work not only crossed disciplinary boundaries, but was published everywhere from
Nature to
Vogue."
Retirement Whittaker retired from his position as chair of the mathematics department at the
University of Edinburgh in September 1946, a role he held for over 33 years. He was awarded
emeritus professor status at the university which he retained until his death.
Max Born, a friend of Whittaker's, wrote a letter to Einstein in September 1953 explaining that he had done all he could over the previous three years to convince Whittaker to change his mind about Einstein's role, but Whittaker was resolved in the idea and, according to Born, he "cherished" and "loved to talk" about it. He was buried at Mount Vernon Cemetery in Edinburgh, with "mathematical precision at a depth of 6 ft. 6 inches", according to the cemetery register.
Herbert Dingle,
Gerald James Whitrow, and
William Hunter McCrea, among others.
Personal life In 1901, while at Cambridge, he married Mary Ferguson Macnaghten Boyd, the daughter of a
Presbyterian minister and granddaughter of
Thomas Jamieson Boyd. They had five children, two daughters and three sons including the mathematician
John Macnaghten Whittaker (1905–1984).
George Frederick James Temple noted that Whittaker's home in
Edinburgh was "a great centre of social and intellectual activity where liberal hospitality was dispensed to students of all ages", and went on to note that Whittaker had a happy home life and was well loved by his family. Whittaker kept a piano in his home which he did not know how to play, but enjoyed listening to friends play when they would come to visit. Whittaker was also known to take a personal interest in his students and would invite them to social gatherings at his house. He also continued to keep track of his Honours students over the years. His home was also the location of many unofficial interviews that would have a large impact on a student's future career. After his death,
William Hunter McCrea described Whittaker as having a "quick wit" with an "ever-present sense of humour" and being "the most unselfish of men with a delicate sense of what would give help or pleasure to others". He notes that Whittaker had a "vast number of friends" and that he "never missed an opportunity to do or say something on behalf of any one of them". ==Legacy==