OBITUARY NOTICES OF FELLOWS DECEASED. 



DR. PARKINSON was born in 1823 near Keighley, in Yorkshire, and 

 died in 1889 at his residence in Cambridge. 



His father died when he was a boy, and left to the widow the diffi- 

 cult task of bringing up a large family on a very narrow income. 

 Coming up to Cambridge in October, 1841, he began his college life 

 with an examination for a sizarship. One of his competitors, who 

 sat just in front of him at this examination, still remembers with 

 wonder how he finished his papers long before the others, and how he 

 sat at his ease with his back against the wall for a long time. The 

 success with which he thus began his college life was due to his 

 own energy and talent, for as a boy he had but limited opportunities 

 for study, and the same energy carried him on successfully through- 

 out his life. 



As a lad without independent means, it was necessary for him to 

 succeed, and accordingly he prepared to do his best at the final 

 University examination. He had most formidable competitors, and 

 the contest therefore excited considerable interest at the time. It 

 was a very different thing from his first skirmish for the sizarship, 

 and it was only after a hard fight that the Johnian was declared to 

 be the Senior Wrangler. The scene is described in a lively manner 

 by a contemporary, an American who resided for five years in an 

 English University. Such descriptions are outside the object of the 

 present memoir, but it helps us to understand the skill of the com- 

 petitors to learn that the Senior Wrangler did more than two-thirds 

 of the problems set in all the three problem papers. Such at least 

 was the current report of the day. 



The Smith's Prize examination was afc that time so arranged that 

 the element of speed did not enter into it to the same extent as into 

 the Tripos. The subjects of examination were in general beyond the 

 reach of ordinary undergraduates. Here the places were reversed, 

 and Parkinson stood second in the list. The contest, however, was 

 well sustained, for in one paper the two first competitors obtained 

 respectively 63 and 55 per cent, of the marks. 



As soon as he had taken his degree he devoted himself to an acade- 

 mical life. He had begun to take pupils even before his degree, and 

 now continued to do so with great success. Three of his pupils, viz. ; 

 Besant, Sprague, and Finch, were the Senior Wranglers in the years 

 1850, 1853, and 1857 ; another pupil, the Eight Hon. L. H. Courtney, 

 M.P., now Chairman of Committees and Deputy Speaker, was second in 

 1855. In 1864 he was appointed to be College Tutor. It was here he 



YOL. XLV. b 



