British mathematician
Cyril Offord, c. 1970 Albert Cyril Offord FRS [ 1] FRSE (9 June 1906 – 4 June 2000) was a British mathematician . He was the first professor of mathematics at the London School of Economics .
Life
He was born in London on 9 June 1906 the eldest child of Albert Edwin Offord, a master printer, and his wife Hester Louise, a former opera singer. The family were Plymouth Brethren . He was educated at Hackney Downs Grammar School. He then studied Mathematics at University College, London . He then went to St John's College, Cambridge as a postgraduate, working with Prof John Edensor Littlewood .[ 2]
He received two Ph.D.s in mathematics: the first from the University of London (under Bosanquet ) in 1932, the second from Cambridge (under Hardy ) in 1936.[ 3]
In 1940 he left Cambridge to lecture at University College, Bangor . In 1942 he moved to King's College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (later being named the University of Newcastle). He was created Professor of Mathematics in 1945.
In 1946 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . His proposers were Sir Edmund Whittaker , John William Heslop-Harrison , Alexander Aitken and Alfred Dennis Hobson . He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1952.[ 4]
In 1948 he left Newcastle to become Professor of Mathematics at Birkbeck College in London replacing Prof Dienes.[ 5] London School of Economics . He retired in 1973 then becoming a senior research fellow at Imperial College, London .[ 2]
He died in Oxford on 4 June 2000.
Family
In 1945 he married Margaret Yvonne Pickard (generally known as Rita), an English teacher. They had one daughter, Margaret Offord (born 1949).
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