Biographical Notes 59 



with real property ; but did some very important scientific work 

 on wave surfaces and the effect of iron in a ship on its compasses. 

 Elected F.R.S. in 1856, he was awarded a Royal Medal in 1865, and 

 received, in the previous year, an honorary LL.D. from Glasgow. 

 He died in London on Dec. 26th, 1872. 



1865. At the Anniversary Meeting, April 24th, the 

 vacancies caused by the death of Dr. H. Falconer and the 

 resignation of Mr. W. Hopkins remained unfilled for want 

 of a quorum, but on May i8th, Mr. Hirst and Colonel R. 

 Strachey were elected. 



PROFESSOR THOMAS ARCHER HIRST, son of a woolstapler at 

 Heckmondwike, Yorkshire, was born on April 22nd, 1830. Educated 

 as a surveyor, he went with J. Tyndall to Marburg University, where 

 he remained three years and took the Ph.D. degree, passing on to 

 Gottingen and Berlin. After work as a teacher of mathematics 

 in England, he was appointed in 1865 Professor at University 

 College, London, becoming ultimately Director of Naval Studies at 

 Greenwich. Weak health obliged him to resign this post in 1883, 

 but he lived till 1892, dying on Feb. i6th in London. He made 

 many important contributions to abstract geometry, was elected 

 F.R.S. in 1861, and received a Royal Medal in 1883. 



GENERAL SIR RICHARD STRACHEY was a member of a good 

 Somerset family, born at Sutton Court on July 24th, 1817. From 

 Addiscombe be obtained a commission in the Bombay Engineers, 

 and was transferred to work under Sir P. T. Cautley on the Ganges 

 Canal. This was interrupted by the Sikh war, and he was present 

 at the battles of Aliwal and Sobraon in 1846. After returning to 

 canal work, he was obliged to take a long holiday in the Kumaon 

 Himalayas, where he explored the ranges west of Nepal and Tibet, 

 striking the upper waters of the Sutlej some 14,000 feet above 

 sea-level, and made large botanical and geological collections. In 

 working out these he was occupied in England from 1850 to 1855, 

 when he went back to India, rendering valuable services during 

 the Mutiny. He retired with the rank of Lieutenant-General in 

 1876, but was sent back from 1877 to 1879 for organization of the 

 railways and investigation of the causes of famine. Elected F.R.S. 

 in 1854, he received a Royal Medal in 1897, became C.S.I, in 1866 

 and G.C.S.I. in 1897. After many valuable services to science and 

 to his country, he died at Hampstead on February i2tb, 1908. 



On Nov. 23rd, the vacancy caused by Prof. Hofmann's 

 return to Germany was filled by the election of Dr. Rolleston. 



DR. GEORGE ROLLESTON was born on July 3oth, 1829, at Maltby 

 Hall, near Rotherham, went to Pembroke College, Oxford, and won a 



