Re: [HM] Hilda P. Hudson

Miles Reid (miles@maths.warwick.ac.uk)
Thu, 30 Jul 1998 13:54:23 +0100 (BST)

Thanks. Since I thrashed around a bit, I was eventually put on to the
obituary by J.G. Semple. In the meantime, it was interesting to forage
into the Proc of the 1912 Cambridge World Congress. For example, in his
closing presidential address, Sir G.H. Darwin recalls that the preceding
Rome congress in 1908 passed "a resolution as to the unification of vectorial
notations. ... exchange of views has taken place ... not found possible
to arrive at any definite conclusion." Then hands the matter on to the
following congress scheduled to take place in Stockholm in 1916.

I'm still looking for a photo of Hilda Hudson (Newnham probably has one),
and for any indications whether she would approve of the feminist
sentiments at the end of my piece.

Yours, Miles

\subsection{Biography}
Hilda Phoebe Hudson (1881--1965) was born into a distinguished family of
mathematicians. Her father was Fellow of St John's, Cambridge and later
Professor at King's College, London; her mother and sister also read math
at Newnham College, Cambridge. Her older brother R.W.H.T. Hudson (to whom
she dedicates this book) died in a mountaineering accident in 1904, the
year of publication of his brilliant C.U.P. book "Kummer's quartic
surface". In addition to work on Cremona transformations, Hilda Hudson
has publications in applied probability and aeronautical engineering. She
published 9 articles on Cremona transformations between 1910 and 1913, and
a further 5 between 1924 and 1927.

An outline of her research career is as follows (for details see her
obituary by J.G.~Semple in Bull.\ London Math.\ Soc.\ (3) {\bf1} (1969),
357--359):
\begin{quote}
1900-1904 undergraduate at Newnham College, Cambridge\\
1904-1905 University of Berlin\\
1905-1913 lecturer and later associate research fellow at Newnham\\
1912-1913 Bryn Mawr College\\
1913-1917 lecturer at West Ham Technical Institute\\
1917-1921 work on Aeronautics in the Civil Service and with a company\\
1921- left salaried employment to finish writing her book
\end{quote}

\subsubsection*{The unfairer sex} Hilda Hudson is "bracketed with" the
7th wrangler in 1903; translating the Cambridge code, this means that she
finishes among the top of the first class students, but is denied a
Bachelor's degree on account of her sex. She is the only woman to give a
communication to the 1912 Cambridge World Congress of Mathematicians, but
is listed in the participants list as accompanying Prof.~W.H.H. Hudson.
Finally, we can only speculate why, at age 46, as the author of a major
monograph and 20 research articles, she does not find appropriate
employment.

Miles Reid (Room 140) tel: +44 (0) 1203 (Coventry) 523491 (office)
Math Inst., Univ. of Warwick home tel: +44 (0) 1926 (Kenilworth) 857929
Coventry CV4 7AL, England Math Inst. Fax: +44 (0) 1203 524182
e-mail: Miles@Maths.Warwick.Ac.UK
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