Biographies

Sheila May Edmonds 1916-2002

Sheila had an excellent undergraduate career ending up a `Wrangler', as students who are placed first class in the examinations for the Mathematical Tripos are called - though this did not result in a Cambridge BA degree because women were ineligible until 1947. The following year, she was awarded a distinction in the notoriously demanding Part III of the Tripos. In a speech she gave at her 80th birthday dinner, she acknowledged that a key to her success was the thorough mathematical training she received from her Director of Studies at Newnham, Margaret Grimshaw, who was 11 years her senior and another of the old-style dons.

After Part III, Sheila Edmonds embarked on research under the supervision of G.H. Hardy, perhaps the finest English mathematician of his generation, who pioneered the study of rigorous mathematics in England. Her Ph.D thesis, finished in 1944, was modestly entitled `Some Multiplication Problems' and contained 44 theorems, 21 lemmas and numerous graphs meticulously coloured in red and black. The opening sentence `The proposition known as Parseval's theorem stands amongst the most celebrated results in the theory of Fourier series.' set the agenda for the series of papers she produced for over a period of 10 years. It also gives an indication of her elegant and economical style, both written and spoken. The influence of Margaret Grimshaw can again be detected in her choice of subject, since the thesis dealt with an area of research that she was also pursuing.

At the time when Sheila started teaching, it was expected that supervisors in mathematics would cover the whole range of pure and applied mathematics; this she did with considerable aplomb, conveying in a characteristically understated manner a deep enthusiasm for her particular subject areas. Her patience, thoroughness and encouragement set a generation of women mathematicians on a path to careers in mathematics and related areas. Indeed, it used to be said that every mathematics student at the womens' colleges had been taught by someone who had been taught by Miss Edmonds or Miss Grimshaw.

Sheila Edmonds was fundamentally a shy, though not a timid, person. Her reticent manner concealed a great deal of warmth and real concern for her students, colleagues and friends. On formal occasions, she cut an impressive figure, but without any hint of pomposity. After her retirement she was content to live quietly with her newly-acquired and rather demanding dog until that was made impossible by the onset of Alzheimer's disease. She had no close relatives.

Stephen Siklos, 2004

To read further

• The full-length version of this text is also available.