OBITUARY

Evening Star, Issue 21634, 1 February 1934, Page 9

OBITUARY

PROFESSOR SQMMERVILLE [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON. January 31. . The death occurred suddenly this morning at Titahi Bay of Professor Duncan M'Laren Young Sommerville, M.A.. D.Sc., F.R.S.E., F.R.A.S., F.N.Z. Inst., professor of pure and applied mathematics at Victoria University College. Although Dr Sommerville, who was fifty-four years of age, had been in indifferent health for some time, his death came with tragic suddenness. Only yesterday he was at the college in his usual good _ spirits _ arranging work for the coming session. Dr Sommerville was a mathematician of exceptional abiilty, with an international reputation, and a man of an exceedingly modest and retiring disposition, almost verging on shyness. _He was never one to enter into the limelight to any degree, but _ the depth, originality, and sneer brilliance of his work in the realm of mathematics during the past thirty years is testified to by the large number of published works enjoying world-wide publication which he leaves behind him. At present another of his ‘books is in the press. Dr Sommerville was a man of many interests. He took a keen interest in W.E.A. work, and was chairman of the tutorial class committee. He was gifted with the brush, and exhibited frequently in the New Zealand Academy of Pine Arts. As a handicraftsman he was skilled in bookbinding. He was chairman of the Library Committee for many years, and possessed a fine literary taste._ He was interested in astronomy, being a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and contributed numerous papers to scientific journals on the subject. He leaves a widow. MR EDWARD GRANGE A PROMINENT CANADIAN. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. OTTAWA, January 31. Mr Edward Wilkinson Grange, aged 57, general manager for Canada for Reuters Limited, died yesterday. MR HUGH CONNELL STATE LABOUR MEMBER. SYDNEY, January 31. The death occurred at Adamstown, near Newcastle, of Mr Hugh Connell, one of the miners’ representatives in the State Assembly, and Chairman of Committees. He was a stalwart official of the Labour Party. He served with distinction in the war, attaining the rank of major, and was fifty years of age.