James Dyson

James William Dyson (29 June 1875 – 6 March 1965) was an English schoolmaster whose subject was maths. After teaching at schools in Faversham and Wellingborough, for most of his career he was head of Boston Grammar School and Ripon Grammar School.

Early life

Born at Wellingborough, Dyson was the eldest son of James Greaves Dyson, a corn merchants’ agent, of Wellingborough, originally from Ambleside, Westmorland. The young Dyson was educated at Wellingborough Grammar School under the headship of Dr H. E. Platt. In the Cambridge schools examinations of December 1891, he gained distinctions in mathematics and applied mathematics. In June 1894 he was admitted as a sizar to St John's College, Cambridge, and matriculated in the Michaelmas term of that year. Dyson graduated BA in 1897 and proceeded to MA by seniority in 1902.

Career Dyson began his teaching career in the Michaelmas term of 1897, weeks after graduating at Cambridge, with an appointment as an assistant schoolmaster at Faversham Grammar School, and remained there for four years. In 1901 he took a job at his old school in Wellingborough In 1912, he gained his first headship, at Boston Grammar School, and in 1919 was appointed as headmaster of Ripon Grammar School. He remained in post until 1935, when he retired.

Jack Gibson, one of Dyson's staff at Ripon in the 1930s, later reported

Personal life In 1903, Dyson married Ethel Johnson, a native of Cambridge. A son, Alec William, was born in Boston in 1913. In 1939, the couple was living in retirement at Thriplow, near Cambridge, with their son, also a schoolmaster. In 1940, at Cambridge, Alec Dyson married Janet M. Bolton, a short distance from Thriplow, and they were the parents of the inventor and businessman James Dyson, born at Cromer in 1947, and Ethel Dyson died in August 1959. J. W. Dyson followed in 1965, in his ninetieth year.