Thomas Bond Sprague

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

FFA FIA LLD (29 March 1830 – 29 November 1920) was a British

actuary An actuary is a professional with advanced mathematical skills who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require investment management, asset management, ...

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

and mathematician who was the only person to have been President of both the

Institute of Actuaries The Institute of Actuaries was one of the two professional bodies which represented actuaries in the United Kingdom. The institute was based in England, while the other body, the Faculty of Actuaries, was based in Scotland. While the Institute a ...

(1882–1886) in London and the

Faculty of Actuaries The Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland was the professional body representing actuaries in Scotland. The Faculty of Actuaries was one of two actuarial bodies in the UK, the other was the Institute of Actuaries, which was a separate body in England, ...

(1894–1896) in Edinburgh, prior to their merger in 2010.

Life

Sprague was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

the son of Thomas Sprague, a wholesale stationer. He attended Tarvin Hall School near Chester. Sprague was an undergraduate at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

, where he was elected to a fellowship following his ranking as

Senior Wrangler The Senior Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain". Specifically, it is the person who achiev ...

in the

Cambridge Mathematical Tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was a distinctive written examination of undergraduate s ...

of 1853. He was awarded the

Smith's Prize Smith's Prize was the name of each of two prizes awarded annually to two research students in mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge from 1769. Following the reorganization in 1998, they are now awarded under the names ...

of Cambridge University in the same year. After serving as the actuary to the Equity and Law life insurance company (1861–1873), he became chief executive (1873–1900) of the Scottish Equitable Life Assurance Society in Edinburgh. In 1874 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were David Smith, Samuel Raleigh,

Philip Kelland Philip Kelland PRSE FRS (17 October 1808 – 8 May 1879) was an English mathematician. He was known mainly for his great influence on the development of education in Scotland. Life Kelland was born in 1808 the son of Philip Kelland (d.1847), ...

, and

Peter Guthrie Tait Peter Guthrie Tait (28 April 18314 July 1901) was a Scottish Mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook ''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'', which he ...

. He retired at age 70. He lived at 29 Buckingham Terrace in Edinburgh's West End. He died on 29 November 1920 at West Holme in

Woldingham Woldingham is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish high on the North Downs between Oxted and Warlingham in Surrey, England, within the M25 motorway, M25, southeast of London. The village has 2,141 inhabitants, many of whom co ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

Memorials

The Thomas Bond Sprague Prize was established in his honour in 2012 within

Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but retains a strong interest in the arts ...

, and the

Faculty of Mathematics, University of Cambridge The Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge comprises the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics (DPMMS) and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). It is housed in the Centre for ...

.Cambridge University Reporter CLXII no 38
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Family

He married twice: firstly in 1859 to Margaret Vaughn Steains; secondly in 1908 to Jean Elizabeth Stuart.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sprague, Thomas B. British actuaries Senior Wranglers 1830 births 1920 deaths 19th-century British mathematicians Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge