THE LATE PRESIDENT. 



Brief Sketch of the Career of Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 

 Bart, T.E.S., D.C.L., LL.D., late President of the Victoria 

 Institute. 



It is fitting that a brief sketch of the career of our late President 

 should appear in this volume of the Transactions, and to those of our 

 members who were only acquainted with this accomplished man by 

 reputation the following biographical record will not fail to be 

 acceptable. Sir G. G. Stokes came of a family which has produced 

 several men of high reputation in various departments of literature, 

 science, and art, amongst whom may be specially mentioned the 

 late Dr. William Stokes, Eegius Professor of Medicine in Dublin 

 University, whose statue adorns the hall of the Eoyal College of 

 Physicians in that city,* and his son Dr. Whitley Stokes, C.S.I., 

 formerly Secretary to the Government of India in the Legislative 

 Department, and subsequently law adviser to the Council of the 

 Indian Government, happily still surviving amongst us. Nor ought 

 we to omit to mention his sister, the late Miss Margaret Stokes, 

 well known for her researches into the Celtic history of her own 

 country, Ireland, and that of the Continent. 



The late President was the son of an Irish clergyman, and was 

 born at Skreen, co. Sligo, on August 13th, 1819. He was educated 

 at Dr. Wall's school, in Dublin, and afterwards at the Bristol 

 College. Having graduated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, 

 taking his B.A. in 1841, as Senior Wrangler, he was elected to a 

 Fellowship. Cambridge University henceforth became the scene of 

 his future labours, which were chiefly in the field of high mathe- 

 matics and physics ; and he was a frequent contributor of papers to 

 the Cambridge Philosophical Transactions. In 1851 he was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society, of which he was chosen in 1854 one of 

 the Secretaries, and afterwards its President, on the retirement of 

 Professor Huxley ; thus attaining to the highest position open to 



The statue is life size in marble, by Foley. 



