Kathleen Ollerenshaw
| Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw | |
|---|---|
Signing a book in the Alan Turing Building
|
|
| Born | Kathleen Mary Timpson 1 October 1912 Withington, Manchester, England, UK |
| Died | 10 August 2014 (aged 101) Didsbury, England, UK |
| Fields |
Magic square Lattices |
| Institutions | University of Manchester |
| Alma mater | Somerville College, Oxford |
| Thesis | (1945) |
| Doctoral advisor | Theodore William Chaundy |
| Spouse | Robert Ollerenshaw (1939–1986, his death) |
| Children | 2 |
Dame Kathleen Mary Ollerenshaw, née Timpson, DBE (1 October 1912 – 10 August 2014) was a British mathematician and politician who was Lord Mayor of Manchester from 1975 to 1976 and an advisor on educational matters to Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s.
Born Kathleen Mary Timpson, Ollerenshaw was born in Withington, Manchester, where she attended Lady Barn House School (1918-1926). Deaf since the age of eight, her fascination with mathematics was inspired by her Lady Barn headmistress, Miss Jenkin Jones. It was during her time at Lady Barn that she met her future husband, Robert Ollerenshaw. Today, Lady Barn House School recognises her as a 'Lady Barn legend' and she features heavily in a major historical display in the school Dining Room.
As a young woman, she attended St Leonards School and Sixth Form College in St Andrews, Scotland where today the house of young male boarders is named after her. At the age of 19 she gained admittance to Somerville College, Oxford, to study mathematics. She completed her doctorate at Somerville in 1945 on "Critical Lattices" under the supervision of Theo Chaundy. She wrote five original research papers which were sufficient for her to earn her DPhil degree without the need of a formal written thesis.
While an undergraduate, she became engaged to Colonel Robert Ollerenshaw, who became a distinguished military surgeon, a pioneer of medical illustration. They married in September 1939 and had two children, Charles (1941-1999) and Florence (1946-1972). In 1942 she suffered a miscarriage and "cried nonstop for three days" as a result of stress when her husband was suddenly mobilised and deployed for war.
After the Second World War, the Ollerenshaws moved to Manchester, where Kathleen worked as a part-time lecturer in the mathematics department at Manchester University while raising her children and continued her work on lattices. In 1949, at the age of 37, she received her first effective hearing aid.
...
Wikipedia