REMEMBERING BRUCE MCLAREN
WAR CUT SHORT THE PROMISING CAREER OF A SCOTCH MATHEMATICIAN
A member of an illustrious Scotch family , and one of over 200 Old Scotch boys featured in the Australian Dictionary of Biography , Samuel Bruce McLaren ’ s achievements in mathematics have tended to be overshadowed by his early death in World War I .
Known as Bruce , he was born at Yedo , near Tokyo , Japan , on 16 August 1876 . He entered Scotch in 1889 but then spent 1891 and the start of 1892 at Brighton Grammar School before returning to Scotch . Bruce left Scotch in 1893 as Dux of Mathematics , which won him a scholarship to Ormond College , Melbourne University . Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1897 with First Class Honours , Bruce took First Class Honours in Mathematics , and won the Wyselaskie ( Mathematics ) and Dixson ( shared , for Natural Philosophy ) scholarships .
In 1903 , a teacher wrote that in 12 years of teaching at the university , Bruce was by far the ablest student he had met , and ‘ one whose ability should be sufficient to place him in a very conspicuous position as an original thinker .’
Bruce studied at Trinity College , Cambridge University , where , in his third year in 1899 , he was third wrangler ( the thirdplaced student with First Class Honours ). In 1900 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours , and in 1901 he received the Isaac Newton studentship in astronomy and physical optics .
From 1904 to 1906 , Bruce was a mathematics lecturer at University College in Bristol . He stayed in Britain , as he was an active part of the ‘ revolution in mathematical physics ’ along with men like Einstein and Planck . Graduating with a Master of Arts in 1905 , Bruce went to Birmingham University in 1906 as a mathematics lecturer .
He wrote well-reasoned and original papers on fundamental concepts . Although
Bruce only published 120 pages from 1911 to 1913 , his work was well regarded for ' originality and a fine boldness of conception '.
With Professor John William Nicholson , Professor of Mathematics at London University , he shared the 1913 Adams Prize , for work on the theory of radiation . It is one of Cambridge University ’ s most prestigious prizes , for distinguished research in the mathematical sciences . Among later winners was Stephen Hawking . Nicholson eulogised that Bruce ' undoubtedly anticipated Einstein and Abraham in their suggestion of a variable velocity of light , with the consequent expressions for the energy and momentum of the gravitational field '. In 1913 Bruce moved to University College , Reading , to take up the chair in mathematics , where he worked hard to establish a solid reputation for the young institution . It became the University of Reading in 1926 . Interested in philosophy , literature and art , he also played tennis and enjoyed boxing .
While returning from a 1914 meeting in Australia of the British Association for the Advancement of Science , following the declaration of World War I , despite a hatred of violence , Bruce ’ s sense of duty triumphed , and he enlisted in the British Army . A lieutenant in the 35 Division of the Royal Engineers , he died of wounds at Abbeville , France , on 13 August 1916 . Details can be found on the Scotch website at : https :// www . scotch . vic . edu . au / ww1 / first / mclarenSB . htm
Bruce ’ s loss was considered by former colleague , Nicholson , as one of the two most irreparable losses to British science caused by World War I . His latest work died with him , and what he could have achieved will never be known . Colleagues saved what they could of what he had written . His
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work was summarised and posthumously published as Scientific Papers in 1925 .
Notable among Bruce ’ s relatives at Scotch were his brother Charles Inglis McLaren ( born 23 August 1882 , SC 1892-99 , died 9 October 1957 ), a respected medical practitioner and missionary ; his nephew Bruce Morell Holmes ( born 17 October 1916 , SC 1931-34 , died 2 April 1954 ), a world authority on the deterioration of timber materials in tropical climates ; and his great-nephew , Professor Andrew Holmes AC ( SC 1954-61 ), who led a team that helped discover light-emitting polymers . Andrew was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2000 and received a Companion of the Order of Australia award ( AC ) in 2017 . Andrew is the President of the Australian Academy of Science .
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