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Authorised form of nameMuir; Sir; Thomas (1844 - 1934); mathematician and educationist
Dates1844 - 1934
NationalityBritish
Place of birthStonebyres, Falls of Clyde, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Date of birth25 August 1844
Place of deathRondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa
Date of death21/03/1934
DatesAndPlacesBurial: Maitland cemetery, near Rondebosch.
Occupationmathematician and educationist
Research fieldAlgebra
Mathematics
ActivityEducation:
Wishaw public school; Glasgow University (1863–8) LLD; MA
Career:
Mathematical tutor at the University of St Andrews (1868–71); assistant to Hugh Blackburn, professor of mathematics at Glasgow University (1871-4); head of the mathematics and science departments at the high school of Glasgow (1874–92); moved to South Africa and in Cape Colony succeeded Sir Langham Dale as superintendent-general of education (1892-1915) where he reorganised the entire public education system, from elementary school to university; vice-chancellor of the University of the Cape in (1897–1901).
Honours:
CMG 1901; Kt 1915
Memberships:
FRSE
Edinburgh Mathematical Society (founding member)
South African Association for the Advancement of Science (President 1910)
Awards/Medals:
RSE Keith Prize 1884; 1899
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election14/06/1900
Age at election56
ProposerJoseph David Everett; John Murray; Andrew Russell Forsyth; [John William Strutt] Rayleigh; George Hartley Bryan; Micaiah John Muller Hill; Percy Alexander MacMahon; Charles Chree
[William Thompson] Kelvin; James Joseph Sylvester; David Gill; James Thomson Bottomley; John Gray McKendrick; Andrew Gray
RelationshipsParents: George Muir, railway superintendent, and Mary Brown.
Spouse: Maggie (d. 1919), youngest daughter of Dugald Bell, merchant, of Dunbartonshire, and his wife, Isabella Young (12 October 1876).
Children: Two sons and two daughters.
OtherInfoRemembered as an authority on determinants.
Royal Society Obituary or MemoirClick to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices)
SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll
Obituaries:
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 1932-1935 vol l pp 179-184, plate, by Herbert Westren Turnbull
CodeNA3587
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
EC/1900/11Muir, Sir Thomas: certificate of election to the Royal Society
NLB/26/672Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to, Dr Thomas Muir, Fellow of the Royal Society, Cape Town8 May 1903
NLB/25/166Copy letter from [A H White], to Dr Thomas Muir, Fellow of the Royal Society5 September 1902
NLB/26/511Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to, Dr Thomas Muir, Fellow of the Royal Society3 April 1903
NLB/25/324Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Dr Thomas Muir, Fellow of the Royal Society17 October 1902
NLB/25/372Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Dr Thomas Muir, Fellow of the Royal Society, Department of Public Education, Cape Town24 October 1902
NLB/25/708Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Thomas Muir, Fellow of the Royal Society, Department of Public Education, Cape of Good Hope12 December 1902
NLB/25/836Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Dr Thomas Muir, Fellow of the Royal Society9 January 1903
NLB/32/5Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Dr Thomas Muir11 December 1905
NLB/46/685Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Thomas Muir, Fellow of the Royal Society16 October 1912
NLB/46/794Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Dr Thomas Muir, Fellow of the Royal Society4 November 1912
NLB/56/516Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Sir Thomas Muir, FRS; Elmcote, Sandown Road, Rondebosch27 February 1919
NLB/64/739Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to R.H. Dick, Esq. M.A.; Boys' High School, South Africa12 June 1923
NLB/53/593Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Sir Alfred [Bray] Kempe, Treasurer of the Royal Society06 November 1916
MC/18/174Letter from [Thomas] Muir, Education Office, Cape Town, to the Royal Society11 March 1903
MC/18/175Letter from [Thomas] Muir, Department of Public Education, Cape Town, South Africa, to the Royal Society18 March 1903
MC/17Volume 17 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1897-1899
MC/27/254Letter from [Thomas] Muir, Capetown [sic.], [South Africa], to [Robert] Harrison, Royal Society, London17 November 1912
MC/27/253Letter from [Thomas] Muir, Department of Public Education, Cape Town, to [Robert] Harrison, [Assistant] Secretary, Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W5 November 1912
MC/18Volume 18 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1903
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