Identity area
Reference code
MacMahon/B/2/10
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 24 January 1910 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
1p paper
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Mathematician noted especially for his work on combinatorics and the partitions of numbers. MacMahon was a student at Cheltenham College, 1868-1870. In 1871, he was admitted to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He saw service in India and Malta throughout the 1870s. Between 1882 and 1888, MacMahon was Instructor in Mathematics at the Royal Military Academy. He retired from the military in 1898 and concentrated subsequently on mathematics. MacMahon was the President of the London Mathematical Society from 1894 to 1896; became a member of St John's College, Cambridge, in 1904, and a resident member of the College in 1922. Other notable achievements include fellowship of the Royal Society (1890); the Royal Society Royal Medal (1900), the Sylvester Medal (1919), and the Morgan Medal by the London Mathematical Society (1923).
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Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
A manuscript letter to Sir Charles Watson from Percy Alexander MacMahon, in which MacMahon writes that Watson will find the opinion of William Burnside, a leading authority on this type of question. Macmahon hopes that Burnside's remarks will lead Watson to add something to his work. If Watson will return his paper to MacMahon with Burnside's letter, he will send it to J. W. L. Glaisher, Editor of the 'Quarterly Journal of Mathematics'.