The following are transcripts of entries for Samuel Hawksley Burbury which have appeared in various biographical sources. Sources are given at the bottom of each entry.
Burbury, Samuel Hawksley (1831--1911), mathematician, born on 18 May 1831 at Kenilworth, was only son of Samuel Burbury of Clarendon Square, Leamington, by Helen his wife.
He was educated at Shrewsbury (1848-50), where he was head boy, an at St. John's College, Cambridge. At the university he won exceptional distinction in both classics and mathematics. He was twice Porson prizeman (1852 and 1853), Craven university scholar (1853), and chancellor's classical medallist (1854). He graduated B.A. as fifteenth wrangler and second classic in 1854, becoming fellow of his college in the same year; he proceeded M.A. in 1857. On 6 October 1855 he entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar on 7 June 1858. From 1860 he practised at the parliamentary bar; but increasing deafness compelled him to take chamber practice only, from which he retired in 1908. While engaged in legal work Burbury pursued with much success advanced mathematical study, chiefly in collaboration with his Cambridge friend, Henry William Watson (q.v. Suppl.II). Together they wrote the treatises, 'The Application of Generalised Co-Ordinates to the Kinetics of a Material System' (Oxford, 1879) and 'The Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism' (2 volumes, Oxford, 1885-9), in which the endeavour was made to carry on the researches of Clerk Maxwell and to place electrostatics and electromagnetism on a more formal mathematical basis. Among many papers which Burbury contributed independently to the 'Philosophical Magazine' were those 'On the Second Law of Thermodynamics, in Connection with the Kinetic Theory of Gases' (1876) and 'On a Theorem in the Dissipation of Energy' (1882). He was elected F.R.S. in 1890. He died on 18 August 1911 at his residence, 15 Melbury Road, London, W., and was buried at Kensal Green.
Burbury married on 12 April 1860 Alice Ann, eldest daughter of Thomas Edward Taylor, J.P., of Dodworth Hall, Barnsley, Yorkshire, and had issue four sons and two daughters. A portrait of Burbury by William E. Miller (1884) is in the possession of his widow.
(The Times, 23 Aug 1911; Nature, 31 Aug 1911; Proc. Royal Society A. 584, p. 81 Proc. Lon. Math. Soc. vol x; Men of the Time, 1899; private information; see art. Watson, Henry William.) D.J.O.
(Source: Dictionary of National Biography, Twentieth Century, 1901--1911 Supplement, Oxford University Press 1920. Reprinted 1966)
Samuel Hawksley Burbury (1831--1911), mathematician. Educated at Shrewsbury and St. John's College, Cambridge. Won many university prizes for classics; fifteenth classic and second wrangler, 1854; fellow, 1854; wrote with Henry William Watson important works on electricity and magnetism; FRS [Fellow of the Royal Society] 1890.
(Source: The Concise Dictionary of National Biography -- From Earliest Times to 1985. Vol I: A--F, Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1992)
Samuel Hawksley Burbury, MA {Master of Arts], FRS [Fellow of the Royal Society], Barrister. Born Kenilworth 18 May 1831. Married Alice, daughter of Thomas Edward Taylor of Dodworth Hall, JP [Justice of the Peace], DL [Deputy-Lieutenant]. Four sons, two daughters. Educated: Shrewsbury; St. John's College, Cambridge. Craven University Scholar 1853; 15th Wrangler, and 2nd in Classical Tripos 1854; Porson Prizeman. Publications: joint-author with Dr. H.W. Watson on Generalised Co-ordinates 1879; The Mathematical Theory of Electricity 1883-85; A Treatise on the Kinetic Theory of Gases 1899. Address: 17 Upper Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, W,; 1 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, W.C. Clubs: New University. Died 18 Aug 1911.
(Source: Who Was Who -- Vol. I 1897--1915, published by Adam & Charles Black, London, 1967 [Cent. Ref. 920.042])
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