Wrangler (University of Cambridge) Totally Explained

Everything about Senior Wrangler totally explained

At the University of Cambridge, a wrangler is a student who has completed the third year (called Part II) of the Mathematical Tripos with first-class honours.
The highest-scoring student is named the "senior wrangler"; the second highest-scoring student is the "second wrangler"; the third highest is the "third wrangler", and so on.
In contrast to the senior wrangler, the person who achieved the lowest exam marks, but still earned a third-class degree, is known as the wooden spoon.

Past wranglers

Senior wranglers have included some of Britain's most brilliant mathematicians and scientists, including John Herschel, Arthur Cayley, George Gabriel Stokes, Lord Rayleigh and J. E. Littlewood. John Couch Adams scored so well that there was a greater gap between him and the second wrangler than between the second wrangler and the wooden spoon.
Interestingly, there are some equally if not more famous names associated with the rank of second wrangler (such as Alfred Marshall, James Clerk Maxwell, J. J. Thomson and Lord Kelvin). Legend has it that Kelvin was so confident that he'd come top of the exam that he asked his servant to run to the Senate House and check who the second wrangler was. The servant returned and informed him, "You, sir"! It is also suggested that the final exam required the students to write a proof of a theorem which Kelvin himself had provided the proof for, earlier in the course; unfortunately, because he'd created it, it hadn't occurred to him to learn it, and he spent a lot of time working it out from scratch - while the student who achieved Senior Wrangler put it down to having committed the proof to memory.
There has long been a culture of fierce competition at mathematics exams at Cambridge. However, it's certainly not true to say that top marks in the Cambridge mathematics exam guaranteed the senior wrangler success in life; the exams were largely a test of speed in applying familiar rules, and some of the most inventive and original students of Mathematics at Cambridge didn't come top of their class (Bragg was 3rd, Hardy was 4th, Sedgwick 5th, Malthus was 9th and Keynes was 12th) and some fared even worse (Klaus Roth wasn't even a wrangler).
   The first woman to top the mathematics list, albeit unofficially, was Philippa Fawcett, who took the exams in 1890. At the time, women were not officially ranked, although they were told how they'd done compared to the male candidates, so she was ranked "above the senior wrangler".
   The examination was the most important in England at the time, and the results were given great publicity. In 1865 Lord Rayleigh was senior wrangler, and The Times of 30 January 1865 printed a story asserting that he hadn't gained this distinction through favouritism as heir to a peerage.
   In the early 20th century, the order of merit was abolished and lists of students who had completed the mathematics exams were sorted alphabetically in each of the three classes of honours, and were not based on individual marks. The last official senior wrangler was P. J. Daniell, who graduated in 1909.
   Students who achieve second-class and third-class mathematics degrees are known as Senior Optimes (second-class) and Junior Optimes (third-class). Cambridge didn't divide its examination classification in mathematics into 2:1s and 2:2s until 1995 but now there are Senior Optimes Division 1 and Senior Optimes Division 2.

Senior Wranglers who achieved distinction outside mathematics

Donald MacAlister, Senior Wrangler in 1877. MacAlister became a physician, and principal and vice-chancellor and, later, chancellor of the University of Glasgow. The postcard portrait was part of the cult of celebrity surrounding the senior wrangler.
William Paley, Senior Wrangler in 1763 was a British divine, Christian apologist, utilitarian, and philosopher. He is best remembered for his watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of God in his book Natural Theology.
George Pretyman, Senior Wrangler and Smith's prize winner in 1772, became Bishop of Winchester, Dean of St Paul's and a confidant of prime minister William Pitt the Younger where he made use of his mathematical skills in advising on the sinking fund.
Edward Hall Alderson, Senior Wrangler and Smith's prize winner in 1809. Alderson became an eminent lawyer and judge. His mathematical background doubtless assisted his devastating cross-examination of George Stephenson over the surveying of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The young Alderson had been tutored by Edward Maltby who was eighth wrangler in 1792 and went on to become a controversial Bishop of Durham.
Other senior wranglers who also won Smith's prize and went on to become eminent lawyers and judges include:
- Thomas Starkie (1803);
- Frederick Pollock (1806); and
- William Henry Maule (1810).
Henry Martyn who became a chaplain in the East India Company, and translated the New Testament into Urdu and Persian

Lists

Senior wranglers

1748 John Bates

1749 John Greene

1750 William Hazeland

1751 John Hewthwaite

1752 Henry Best

1753 William Disney

1754 William Abbot

1755 Thomas Castley

1756 John Webster

1757 Edward Waring

1758 Robert Thorp

1759 Joshua Massey

1760 George Cross

1761 John Wilson (Sir John Wilson, Judge of Common Pleas)

1762 Richard Haighton

1763 William Paley

1772 George Pretyman Tomline

1774 Isaac Milner

1779 Thomas Jones (mathematician)

1784 Robert Acklom Ingram

1786 John Bell

1787 Sir Joseph Littledale (1767-1842), Court of Queen's Bench, P.C.

1788 John Brinkley

1790 Bewick Bridge (1767-1833)

1794 George Butler

1795 Robert Woodhouse

1796 John Kempthorne

1800 James Inman

1801 Henry Martyn

1802 Thomas Penny White

1803 Thomas Starkie

1804 John Kaye (English bishop)

1805 Thomas Turton

1806 Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet

1808 Henry Bickersteth, 1st Baron Langdale

1809 Edward Hall Alderson

1810 William Henry Maule

1812 Cornelius Neale

1813 John Herschel

1819 Joshua King

1821 Solomon Atkinson (1797-1865) (External Link

)

1823 Sir George Biddell Airy

1824 John Cowling

1825 James Challis

1831 Samuel Earnshaw

1834 Philip Kelland (professor of mathematics at Edinburgh)

1836 Archibald Smith

1837 William Griffin

1838 (professor of mathematics at Royal Naval College)

1839 (professor of geometry at Gresham College)

1840 Robert Leslie Ellis, possibly H. Leslie Ellis

1841 George Gabriel Stokes

1842 Arthur Cayley

1843 John Couch Adams

1844 George Wingman Hemming, K.C.

1845 Stephen Parkinson

1852 P.G. Tait

1853 Thomas Bond Sprague (1830-1920), President of Institute of Actuaries

1854 Edward Routh

1855 J. Savage

1858 ? Slesser

1859 James Maurice Wilson

1860 Sir James Stirling (1836-1916), Lord Justice of Appeal, PC

1861 William Steadman Aldis, professor of mathematics at University of Auckland

1863 Robert Romer (1840-1918), Lord Justice of Appeal, PC

1864 ? Purkiss

1865 John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh

1866 Morton, R

1867 Charles Niven (Peterhead, born 1845). M.A. Aberdeen 1863. Professor of Mathematics, Queen’s College, Cork, 1880. Professor natural philosophy Aberdeen.

1868 John Fletcher Moulton

1869 Numa E. Hartog, first Jewish SW

1870 Richard Pendlebury, St John's

1871 John Hopkinson

1874 Ananda Mohan Bose - first Indian

1875 John William Lord (Ipswich July 27 1851 - Clarens Switzerland September 4 1883) Gold Medalist Of The London University; Fellow Of University College London; Fellow Of Trinity College Cambridge

1877 Donald MacAlister

1878 E. W. Hobson

1880 Joseph Larmor

1881 Andrew Forsyth

1883 G. B. Mathews

1884 William Fleetwood Sheppard

1885 Arthur Berry

1886 Alfred Cardew Dixon, Chair of Mathematics at Queen's College, Galway

1887 H. F. Baker

1889 Gilbert Walker

1890 G. T. Bennett -- actually placed second to Philippa Fawcett, as noted above

1895 Thomas John I'Anson Bromwich

1897 W. H. Austin

1898 Ronald William Henry Turnbull Hudson, author of Kummer's Quartic Surface

1899 T. Birtwhistle aeq

1899 R. P. Paranjpe, first Indian SW, aeq

1900 J. E. Wright

1902 Ebenezer Cunningham

1903 Harry Bateman & P. E. Marrack

1904 Arthur Stanley Eddington

1905 John Edensor Littlewood

1906 A. T. Rajan, second Indian SW

1908 Selig Brodetsky

1909 Percy John Daniell

Second Wranglers

1757 John Jebb

1759 Richard Watson (bishop)

1780 W. Friend Actuary to Royal Life Assurance Company

c1760 John Jebb (1736-1786)

1794 Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Chancellor

1810 Thomas Shaw Brandreth

1812 George Peacock

1816 William Whewell

1821 Henry Melvill

1831 Samuel Laing (science writer)

1834 Thomas Rawson Birks later Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy

1835 Henry Goulburn (1813-1843), son of Henry Goulburn

1836 John William Colenso

1837 James Joseph Sylvester

1840 H. Goodwin Dean of Ely 1858-1869 Bishop of Carlisle 1869-1891

1843 Francis Bashforth(1819-1912), inventor of the Bashforth chronograph, professor of applied mathematics at Woolwich 1864-1872

1845 William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

1848 Charles Mackenzie

1849 ? Phear

1850 Henry William Watson

1854 James Clerk Maxwell

1855 Leonard Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith

1865 Alfred Marshall

1866 Thomas S Aldis

1867 William Kingdon Clifford

1872 Horace Lamb

1874 W. W. Rouse Ball

1875 William Burnside, George Chrystal (aeq.)

1878 John Edward Aloysius Steggall, Assistant Master at Clifton College; Fielden lecturer at Owens College, Manchester; Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics, University College Dundee

1880 J. J. Thomson

1885 Augustus Edward Hough Love

1895 E. T. Whittaker

1896 Ernest William Barnes

1898 John Forbes Cameron aeq Master of Caius

1898 James Jeans aeq

1900 Authur Cyril Webb Aldis, Inventor of the Aldis Morse code signalling lamp

Sources

D. O. Forfar (1996/7) What became of the senior wranglers?, Mathematical spectrum 29, 1-4.

a survey of the subsequent careers of senior wranglers during the 157 years (1753-1909) in which the results of Cambridge’s mathematical tripos were published in order of merit.

Peter Groenewegen (2003). A Soaring Eagle: Alfred Marshall 1842-1924. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. ISBN 1-85898-151-4.

gives the story about Rayleigh; Alfred Marshall was the commoner who came second to Rayleigh.

C. M. Neale (1907) The Senior Wranglers of the University of Cambridge. Available online

Andrew Warwick (2003) Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-87374-9

a very thorough account of the Cambridge system in the 19th century. Appendix A lists the top 10 wranglers from 1865 to 1909 with their coaches and their colleges.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Senior Wrangler'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://wrangler__university_of_cambridge.totallyexplained.com">Wrangler (University of Cambridge) Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.