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| November 25th | George Birch Jerrard (Birth) |
The famous mathematician, George Birch Jerrard (1804 – 1863) and the son of Major General Joseph Jerrard, was born in Bodmin on this day in 1804. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin and matriculating in 1827, he came to prominence with the publication of his ‘Mathematical Researches’ (1834) in which described ways to solve equations of all degrees. Until then ways to solve quadratic equations (of the form ax2 + bx +c) and cubic equations (of the form ax3 + bx2 + cx + d) were well known but he had developed methods to solve quartic (x4 type) and quintic (x5 type) equations and believed his methods could be extended to solve equations to any power of x. In 1826, London University was founded, with teaching beginning two years later. King’s College London was founded in 1829 and, in 1836, the University of London was formed as the administrative body for the two colleges with responsibility for examination of undergraduates and with the authority to confer degrees. Jerrard was appointed ‘Examiner in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the University of London’ in 1838 and, as a member of the Senate of the University of London, he was instrumental in the formation of the university’s library. He was an early member of ‘The British Association for the Advancement of Science’ (now known as ‘The British Science Association’). He also wrote numerous papers for the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ and the journals of the ‘Royal Society’. After retirement from the University of London (1859) the unmarried Jerrard moved to his brother’s house, Long Stratton Rectory in Norfolk where he died in 1863.
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