A REMARKABLE MEMORY

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20989, 18 October 1933, Page 8

A REMARKABLE MEMORY

GRADUATE OF OTAGO ' UNIVERSITY DISTINGUISHED CAREER [THE PRESS Special Sorrice.] DUNEDIN, October 17. Dr. A. C. Aitken, who was mentioned in a cable message from London to-day for a remarkable feat in being able to supply from memory the names and numbers and even the addresses of the next-of-kin of all the men in his battalion, is a Dunedin boy. He was dux of the Albany Street School at the age of 11 years, and he is one of the most distinguished of all the old boys of the Otago Boys' High School, of which he was dux in 1912, and of the students of the University of Otago. One of his achievements was to qualify for three senior scholarships of the University of New Zealand—in Latin, pure mathematics, and applied mathematics. Holding the scholarship in Latin, he took his M.A. degree with first-class honours in Latin and French, and secondclass honours in mathematics.

A Post-Graduate Scholar. Being awarded a post-graduate scholarship in arts, he studied at the University of Edinburgh, where after two years he won his Doctorate of Science for some specially brilliant research work in mathematics. Although only 38 years of age, he has already published more than 30 papers embodying original research in mathematics, collaborating in some of the work with Professor E. T. Whittaker, of the University of Edinburgh, and Professor H. W. Turnbull, of the University of St. Andrews. For some years he has been on the mathematical staff of the University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which recently awarded him the Makdougall-Brisbane Prize presented every two years for the most noteworthy work in original research in any branch of science. Dr. Aitken is an eager student of literature and languages. He is not only a brilliant executant on the violin, but also he has composed music for that instrument. On Gallipoli he carried his violin with him throughout the campaign. Feats of Memory. Many stories of Dr. Aitken's feats of memory are told by men who served with him at the war. Not only did he know the names and numbers of all the men under his command; but it is also related that I he 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 the stage at which they had left the ranks. When, for some years after the war, he was on the staff of the Otago Boys' High School, it was possible for him to know five minutes after an entirely new class had entered his room at the beginning of a year the name of every member. He would ask the boys to call out their names, and immediately afterwards he could address any boy by i his name.