MEMORY FEATS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 246, 18 October 1933, Page 9

MEMORY FEATS.

OTAGO H.S. OLD BOY.

NOW PROFESSOR IN EDINBURGH. BRILLIANT MATHEMATICIAN. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) DUX ED IX, Tuesday. "One of the most distinguished of all old boys of the Otago Boys' High School, of which he was dux in 1912, and of the students of the University of Otago," is the description given in Dunedin of Dr. A. C. Aitken, a professor at Edinburgh University, who was mentioned in a cable message from London to day for a remarkable feat of memory during the war in being able to supply the names and numbers of all the men in his battalion and even addresses of the next of kin. Dr. Aitken is a former Dunedin boy, and was dux of Albany Street School at the age of eleven. He gained his doctorate of science degree at the University of Edinburgh for specially brilliant research work in mathematics.

Although not yet 40 years of age he has already published over 30 article.s embodying original research in mathematics and for some years he has been on the mathematical staff of the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Aitken is also an eager student of literature and languages, and is not only a brilliant violinist, but has com posed many works. On Gallipoli ho had his violin with him throughout the campaign.

Many stories of Dr. Aitkcn's feats of memory are told by men who served with liim ut the war. Xot only did he know the names and numbers of all men under his command, but it is also related that ho knew the numbers of their rifles. He was able to tell when carrying out an inspection whether a man was carrying his own rifle or that of another member of his company. At the end of a long march he was able to recall the names of all of the men who had dropped out and tlio stage at which they had left tlio ranks.

When for some years after the war he was on the staff' of the Otago Boys' High School it was possible for liini to know five minutes after an entirely new class had entered his room at the beginning of the year the name of every member. He would ask the boys to call out their names quickly in order, and immediately afterwards he could address any boy by his name. On at least one occasion he asked a boy to write 011 the blackboard a. series of numbers reaching from one side of the board to the other. After a brief glance at the numbers he turned away from the board and recited them to the class without making a single mistake. ITo could also multiply the numbers of two passing motor cars and give the answer before they were out of sight.