Sir John Henry MacFarland (19 April 1851 – 22 July 1935) was an Irish–

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n university chancellor. TT3072 John Henry MacFarland

MacFarland was born in

Omagh Omagh (; from , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers River Drumragh, Drumragh and Camowen River, Camowen meet to form the River Strule, Strule. Northern Ireland's c ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Its county town is Omagh. Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and educated at the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast. He was senior scholar in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at

Queen's College, Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, where he was taught by John Purser. There he earned a BA in 1871 and MA in 1872. Moving to St. John's College, Cambridge, he was elected a foundation scholar, and earned a second BA, as 26th wrangler, in 1876. He also got an MA there in 1879. MacFarland taught at

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, private, boarding and day school in the public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school which was th ...

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from 1876 to 1880. (A decade later, his younger brother Robert (1860–1922), also a Queen's Belfast and Cambridge maths graduate, would teach at Repton.) In 1881, he became the first master of

Ormond College Ormond College is the largest of the residential colleges of the University of Melbourne located in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is home to around 350 undergraduates, 90 graduates and 35 professorial and academic residents. H ...

in the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

. In 1919, he became chancellor of the university and was knighted the same year. In 1892, the

Royal University of Ireland The Royal University of Ireland was a university in Ireland that existed from 1879 to 1909. It was founded in accordance with the University Education (Ireland) Act 1879 as an examining and degree-awarding university based on the model of the ...

had bestowed upon him an honorary LLD degree.MacFarland, Sir John Henry (1851–1935)
Heritage Guide to The Geelong College MacFarland became a director of the National Mutual Life Association c. 1905 and was chairman from 1928. He died in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Victoria, Australia on 22 July 1935.

References

*Serle, Geoffrey
MacFarland, Sir John Henry (1851–1935)
''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Vol. 10, MUP, 1986, pp 266–267. Retrieved 8 January 2014 *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:MacFarland, John Henry 1851 births 1935 deaths Australian educational theorists Irish emigrants to colonial Australia Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Vice-chancellors of the University of Melbourne Chancellors of the University of Melbourne Australian Knights Bachelor People from Omagh People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Scholars and academics from County Tyrone