James Douglas Hamilton Dickson

James Douglas Hamilton Dickson FRSE MRI (1 May 1849 – 6 February 1931) was a Scottish mathematician and expert in electricity. He was a Senior Fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge. Glasgow University elected him an Eglinton Fellow. He was the elder brother of Charles Dickson, Lord Dickson.

He had in-depth knowledge in fields of electricity and electrostatics and also a great interest in low temperature physics.

Life

He was born in Glasgow on 1 May 1849, a son of Dr John Robert Dickson of Edinburgh. He attended both Glasgow and Cambridge Universities, graduating MA. From 1867 to 1869 he was assistant to William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, being the joint-builder of the technical equipment which Kelvin used to measure electrostatic energy. In 1869, he assisted Kelvin in the laying of the first Transatlantic communication cables. The French company overseeing the work were impressed by Dickson and kept him in their employ as Electrician-in-Charge, based in Brest until 1870.

During the First World War, at which point he was officially retired, he was asked to fill in for absent masters teaching Maths at both Fettes College and Edinburgh Academy.

He died on 6 February 1931, aged 81.

Publications Over and above multiple papers on mathematics and physics, Dickson enjoyed biographical work. Three entries in the Dictionary of National Biography are under his authorship: Peter Guthrie Tait Edward John Routh

Family

He married Isobel Catherine Banks, sister of his sister-in-law Hestor Bagot Banks (i.e. the two brothers married two sisters). A third sister, Helen Rose Banks, married Sir James Dewar, connecting all three figures.