James Whitbread Lee Glaisher

Who was James Whitbread Lee Glaisher?

James Whitbread Lee Glaisher FRS FRAS, son of James Glaisher, the meteorologist, was a prolific English mathematician and astronomer.

He was educated at St Paul's School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was second wrangler in 1871. Influential in his time on teaching at the University of Cambridge, he is now remembered mostly for work in number theory that anticipated later interest in the detailed properties of modular forms. He published widely over other fields of mathematics.

He was the editor-in-chief of Messenger of Mathematics. He was also the 'tutor' of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. He was president of the Royal Astronomical Society 1886-1888 and 1901-1903.