Sir Joseph Larmor

Joseph Larmor was born in 1857 at Magheragall, County Antrim, Ireland. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen's College, Belfast. After graduating, he became a scholar at St. John's College, Cambridge. In 1880, he was elected a fellow of St. John's, returning to Ireland in the same year as professor of natural philosophy at Queen's College, Galway. In 1885, he returned to Cambridge as a university lecturer in mathematics, a post he held until 1903, when he was appointed to the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics. Larmor is best known for his contributions to the theory of electromagnetism, in particular the electron theory of matter, publishing his collected papers on electromagnetism in 1900 entitled Aether and Matter. His work marked the end of an attempt to express everything in terms of Newtonian physics and led soon afterwards to the theory of relativity. From 1911 to 1922, he represented Cambridge University as a Unionist Member of Parliament. He received many awards throughout his career and was knighted in 1909. Retiring from the Lucasian chair in 1932, Larmor returned to Ireland, where he lived until his death in 1942 at Holywood, County Down.

From the guide to the Sir Joseph Larmor collection, 1905, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)