File 3 - Subscribers' Correspondence (1907-1922): College Mission

Joseph Timmis Ward was born in Banbury in 1853, and subsequently educated at King’s School, Rochester. He was matriculated at St John’s in 1872, and took his degree in 1876 as Senior Wrangler. Following this, he was first Smith’s prizeman, and was elected to a Fellowship that lasted until his death.
Ward was ordained as a deacon in 1877, and then as a priest at Ely in 1879. After returning to Cambridge, he became mathematical lecturer at St John’s, where he also served as a tutor for twelve years started in 1883. From 1896 to 1903, he was also Senior Dean.
Ward was an original founder of Westcott House, Cambridge. He was a supporter of the Cambridge Mission to Delhi, and served as Secretary of the Committee for the St John’s College Mission at Walworth c.1906-1910. He died in Cambridge on the 23rd June 1935.

Obituary in the Eagle: Vol. 49, Mich 1935, p. 122

Francis Puryer White was born in London on 26th October 1893. He was the son of John Francis White, a schoolmaster. He was educated at Stanley Higher Elementary School and then at Owen’s School both in North London. He then entered St. John’s College as a student of mathematics in 1912, gaining a first class in part I of the Mathematics tripos in 1913 and again in Part II in 1915. He was elected in 1916 to the Isaac Newton Studentship in Astronomy and Optical Physics. There followed a short period of war service, from which he returned to St. John’s in 1919, where he was elected a Fellow. He remained a Fellow of St. John’s for the rest of his life. He was appointed a College Lecturer in 1920 and a University Lecturer in 1926 and remained a member of the mathematical teaching staff until he retired in 1961. He was Director of Studies in Mathematics, from 1945 until 1959.
When White returned to Cambridge in 1919 he came increasingly under the influence of H. F. Baker, then Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry. Baker’s real interest was in geometry, and his influence was a primary factor in causing White to devote his energies to geometry rather than astronomy. From 1922 to 1930 White wrote a series of papers on the geometry of conies rational normal curves, and other special plane curves, which were all extremely elegant. But White's main contribution to geometry was his influence on the young men reading mathematics. His enthusiasm for geometry sparked off a similar enthusiasm in others. These were the young men who went on to join the Baker school, which was extremely active from the mid-twenties to the mid-thirties. The main activity of this was a seminar, known as " Baker's Saturday tea-party ", which Baker and White presided over in person.
White served on the council of London Mathematical Society from 1923-47. He was Honorary Secretary from 1926-44 and Vice-president from 1944-46. His continuous service of 24 years on the Council of the London Mathematical Society included 18 years as secretary and simultaneously, from 1924 to 1936, he was Mathematical Secretary of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (of which he later became President). In addition to the normal duties in connection with the running of the societies, White did a vast amount of editing of mathematical papers, and his contemporaries were familiar with the sight of him carrying round proof sheets and working on them whenever he had an opportunity. There was less paper work and travelling to London to do during the war, but the responsibility of keeping the Society going during this period fell on him.
But White's services to his University and his College were not limited to mathematics. He was a member of the Cambridge University Press Syndicate continuously from 1931 to 1958, and on the Library Syndicate from 1949 to 1960. He also served on the University Financial Board, and on the Ely Diocesan Board of Finance. He was one of the local secretaries when the British Association met in Cambridge in 1938.
White was dedicated to serving St. John’s College for his whole life. As a regular Chapel-goer, he was active in the affairs of the College Mission, and he served the College in a number of minor offices, including that of Tutorial Bursar. He was also Senior Treasurer of the Committee for the St. John's College Mission at Hoxton from 1921. But his greatest service was in the office of Librarian, which he held from 1948 to 1961. He had always been a collector of early mathematical and scientific books, many of which he later gave to the University Library, and he was well equipped for a librarian's duties. Every aspect of the Library received his loving attention, and his labours to arrange and catalogue vast numbers of documents were unceasing. The College records, particularly the Records of Admissions, claimed his constant attention, and on his retirement under the statutory age limit from the Librarianship, the College fittingly recognised his services by creating for him the special office of Keeper of the College Records.
White was married to Barbara Dale, daughter of Sir Alfred Dale, Vice-Chancellor of Liverpool University, whom he married in 1934. She was for many years Fellow and Bursar of Newnham College. White died on 11th July 1969.

George Udny Yule was born on the 18th February 1871, to George Udny Yule and Henrietta Peach Pemberton. Though born in Scotland, Yule’s parents moved to London when he was four, and it was there he grew up. Yule boasted an impressive military family history, and so his father wished him to become a solider. Yule, however, disagreed. He was educated at Winchester College School, which he left at sixteen to study engineering at University College, London. Yule worked various appointments in London, but the most important was that of Newmarch Lecturer in Statistics. These lectures produced a book published in 1911: An Introduction to the Theory of Statistics, a landmark text translated into many languages and reproduced in many editions.
Yule finally arrived at Cambridge as University Lecturer in Statistics in 1912—matriculated in 1913— but went on to lecture in a number of faculties. He was a Fellow of the College from 1922-1951, a member of the College Council, and a Director of Studies in Natural Sciences.
When Yule gave up his teaching post, he began devoting his time to reading. Studying the statistical similarities of vocabulary between texts led him to write Statistics of Literary Vocabulary. Yule read widely across genres and donated many books to the College, not just printed editions but four manuscript copies of De Imitatione Christi and various tracts on agriculture.
Yule died on the 26th June 1951.

Obituary in the Eagle: Vol. 55, Easter 1952, p. 89.
Accessible online at: https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Eagle/Eagle%20Volumes/1950s/1952/Eagle_1952_Easter.pdf

Fellow of St. John's College, 1911-1947, and the first Professor of Medieval History at the University of Cambridge, 1937-1942. Editor of the 'English Historical Review', 1925-1938, and author of many books on medieval history. Elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1929. Senior Treasurer of the Committee for the College Mission, c. 1918-1921.