Professor John Leigh Smeathman (27 May 1865 – 13 January 1933) was a mathematician and Principal of East London College, England, one of the founding colleges of what is now

Queen Mary College , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

, part of

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degre ...

. He was also

Vice Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor ...

of London University in the 1930s.

Early life

Smeathman was born in Street Aston, near

Rugby, Warwickshire Rugby is a market town in eastern Warwickshire, England, close to the River Avon. In the 2021 census its population was 78,125, making it the second-largest town in Warwickshire. It is the main settlement within the larger Borough of Rugby w ...

.Oxford Journals extract, accessed 24 October 2015
/ref> on 27 May 1865, the eldest son of Revd J L S Hatton, Rector of West Barkwith,

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. He was educated at

Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The col ...

where he obtained an MA graduating with first class honours in 1889 and second class honours in physics a year later. He also later qualified as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and givin ...

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincol ...

. He also studied geometry at Oxford as an undergraduate under

Savilian Professor of Geometry The position of Savilian Professor of Geometry was established at the University of Oxford in 1619. It was founded (at the same time as the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy) by Sir Henry Savile, a mathematician and classical scholar who was ...

James Joseph Sylvester James Joseph Sylvester (3 September 1814 – 15 March 1897) was an English mathematician. He made fundamental contributions to matrix theory, invariant theory, number theory, partition theory, and combinatorics. He played a leadership ...

Career

He was Director of Evening Classes (1892–1896), later Director of Studies 1896–1908 and Principal, East London College (University of London), now Queen Mary College, 1896-1933. He was Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of London from 1930–31 and Vice-Chancellor from 1932-33. He was Dean of the Faculty of Science at the university from 1922–26. He also served as a member of the

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

and the

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

Education Committees during the 1920s.

Personal life

In 1897 he married Pauline Carlyle, daughter of R J Henderson of

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

and they had two sons.

Notable publications

* ''The Principles of Projective Geometry applied to the straight line and conic'', 1913, reprinted BiblioBazaar (18 Nov 2009) * ''The Theory of the Imaginary in Geometry: Together with the Trigonometry of the Imaginary'' (Cambridge Library Collection - Mathematics), 1920, reprinted Cambridge University Press (2 Sep 2010),

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatton, John Leigh Smeathman 1865 births 1933 deaths Vice-Chancellors of the University of London Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford

Early life

Career

Personal life

Notable publications

See also

References