EMS Edge

The following is an extract from the minutes of the Fourth Ordinary Meeting of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society held in the New Senate Hall, Old College, University of Edinburgh, at 5.00 p.m. on Friday 4th February 1983:

W L Edge

The President, Professor A G Mackie, was in the Chair. Approximately 120 members and guests were present.

The minutes of the meeting on Friday, 3rd December 1982 were taken as read and approved.

The President referred to the Committee's nomination for Honorary Membership of Professor W L Edge, being conscious of his immense contributions to Mathematics and, in the words of the special minute of the Senatus of the University of Edinburgh on his retirement in 1975:

"An internationally famous scholar and researcher, a dedicated and experienced teacher, a warm-hearted friend and mentor to generations of students, he will be remembered by the academic community as an outstanding personality of a mould rarely found in our times."

Much of his dedication to Mathematics was and is channelled into the Society to which he was elected on 3rd December 1932. At the Jubilee dinner, a year later, the Minute book records:

"Between the toasts, Handel's Sonata in E was played by Mr W L Edge (piano) and Dr A C Aitken (violin)."

He was Librarian 1936-63, Vice-President 1942-44, and President 1944-45. He has addressed the Society on several occasions, and is one of the most regular attenders at meetings.

Following the Committee's unanimous recommendation, the President then proposed Professor Edge for Honorary Membership. This was approved with acclamation. The President then shook hands with Professor Edge and admitted him as an Honorary Member. Professor Edge signed the Honorary Members' book and, in a short speech, thanked the Society for the honour it had paid him, remarking that the present Honorary Members had in common that they were all sometime fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge.