◀ ▲ ▶History / 19th-century / Person: Steggall, John Edward Aloysius
Person: Steggall, John Edward Aloysius
John Steggall was appointed to be the first Professor of Mathematics at the newly-formed University College Dundee: soon to become Queen's College and part of the University of St Andrews. He held this post for 50 years.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- John was educated in London and attended the City of London School.
- The Senior Wrangler in that year was Ernest Hobson but in the competition for the Smiths Prize it was Steggall who came out as the top candidate ahead of Hobson.
- Hobson won a fellowship but these were only open to those who did not marry and Steggall was about to marry Isabella Katherine Fraser of Rowmore House, Gareloch, near Helensburgh.
- After graduating Steggall became an Assistant Master at Clifton College, Bristol.
- Steggall applied to become the first Principal of University College, Dundee.
- Steggall then became Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics, a title that he held until he chose to retire in 1933 having been a professor for 50 years.
- Two years after he became Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics, University College Dundee became part of the University of St Andrews and so from 1897 on Steggall became an employee of the University of St Andrews.
- It was while he was at Owens College, Manchester, that Steggall published London University Pure Mathematics Questions and Solutions which gave the University of London examination questions from 1877 to 1881 together with Steggall's solutions.
- Steggall had little time for research when he arrived in Dundee.
- He was an enthusiastic member of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society which, by coincidence, was founded in the year that Steggall arrived in Scotland to take up his professorship in Dundee.
- Comments by Muir in his presidential address to the Society in 1884 suggest that he resented the Englishman Steggall being appointed to a Scottish professorship but Steggall fitted in well with the work of the new Society and was elected its tenth president in 1891-92.
- Steggall ordered mathematical models from a German company in the early 1900s to use in his teaching.
- Steggall was active in many areas: Dundee Social Union, Dundee School Board, and the Episcopal Church.
- Steggall's many other interests included photography, woodwork and cycling.
Born 19 November 1855, London, England. Died 26 November 1935, Dundee, Scotland.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Astronomy, Origin England
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
-
- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
