Biography

James Whitbread Lee Glaisher was born on 5 November 1848 in Lewisham, Kent, the elder son of James Glaisher (1809–1903), astronomer and meteorologist, and his wife, Cecilia Louisa Belville. He was sent to St Paul's School, London, in 1858. In 1867 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected a scholar the following year, and in 1871 he graduated second wrangler. He was elected a fellow of Trinity in October 1871 and was at once appointed a lecturer and assistant tutor. His lectureship continued for thirty years until 1901 and he remained in residence at Trinity for the rest of his life. Glaisher was much involved in the scientific organizations of his time. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society at the early age of twenty-seven in 1875, served on its council for three periods (1883–4, 1890–92, 1917–19), and was awarded the Sylvester medal in 1913. His earliest original paper (dealing with numerical tables of some non-evaluable integrals), written while he was still an undergraduate, was communicated to the society in 1870. Glaisher joined the London Mathematical Society in 1872, was a member of its council continuously until his retirement in 1906, served as president in 1884–6, and was awarded the De Morgan medal in 1908. He joined the Royal Astronomical Society in 1871, was on its council from 1874 until 1928, serving twice as president (1886–8 and 1901–3). Like his father, he was active in the British Association for the Advancement of Science, as secretary of Section A for a number of years, as president of the section at the Leeds meeting of 1890, and as a member of many of the committees dealing with numerical tables, and of those reporting on the contemporary state of mathematical science. The main part of Glaisher's published work consists of his papers on mathematics and astronomy. In middle life Glaisher began his study of ceramics, which developed into the dominant pursuit of his remaining years and resulted in his becoming one of the leading collectors of his day and the author of several papers on ceramics. Glaisher died in his college rooms in New Court on 7 December 1928 and was buried at Cambridge. He never married.

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