Henry Forder

Henry George Forder (27 September 1889 – 21 September 1981) was a New Zealand mathematician.

Academic career Born in Shotesham All Saints, near Norwich, he won a scholarships first to a Grammar school and then to University of Cambridge. After teaching mathematics at a number of schools, he was appointed to the chair of mathematics at Auckland University College in New Zealand in 1933. He was very critical of the state of the New Zealand curriculum and set about writing a series of well received textbooks.

His Foundations of Euclidean Geometry (1927) was reviewed by F.W. Owens, who noted that 40 pages are devoted to "concepts of classes, relations, linear order, non archimedean systems..." and that order axioms together with a continuity axiom and a Euclidean parallel axiom are the required foundation. The object achieved is a "continuous and rigorous development of the [Euclidean] doctrine in the light of modern investigations."

Forder lectureship The Forder Lectureship was established jointly by the London Mathematical Society and the New Zealand Mathematical Society in his honour in 1986.

Selected works 1927: The Foundations of Euclidean Geometry via Internet Archive 1930: A School Geometry 1931: Higher Course Geometry 1941: The Calculus of Extension via Internet Archive 1950: Geometry via Internet Archive 1953: Coordinates in Geometry