George Boole (1815–1864) by unknown artist, 1847 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
I. Grattan-Guinness
Boole, George (1815–1864), mathematician and logician, was born on 2 November 1815 in Lincoln, the eldest of four children of a local tradesman, John Boole (1777–1848), shoemaker, and his wife, Mary Ann Joyce (1777–1854). He adopted a love of learning from his father, who was active in the local mechanics' institute, to such an extent that in his teens he was employed as a teacher at schools in ...
Article
Kirkman, Thomas Penyngton (1806–1895), mathematician and philosopher, was born on 31 March 1806 in Bolton, Lancashire, the only son of John Kirkman (d. 1839), cotton dealer, and his wife, Elizabeth. Baptized Pennington, he adopted the spelling Penyngton in later life. He was educated at ...
Article
Ramsey, Frank Plumpton (1903–1930), mathematician and philosopher, was born on 22 February 1903 at 71 Chesterton Road, Chesterton, Cambridge, the eldest of the two sons and two daughters of Arthur Stanley Ramsey (1867–1954), fellow and later president of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and his wife, ...
Article
E. T. Whittaker
revised by I. Grattan-Guinness
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861–1947), mathematician and philosopher, was born at Ramsgate on 15 February 1861, the last of the four children of the Revd Alfred Whitehead (1827–1898), at that time headmaster of a private school in Ramsgate, and later vicar of St Peter's, Isle of Thanet...
Image
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) by Walter Stoneman, 1917 © National Portrait Gallery, London
