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The CELEBRATION OF TWO LIVES CONFERENCE
took place in Rutherford College at The University of
Kent on May 6th 1995. The conference was
planned to mark the 150th anniversary of William Kingdon
Clifford's birth. It was organized and presented by four
people involved in research into the lives and
works of the Cliffords . Professor Roy Chisholm
and Dr Ruth Farwell have worked on Clifford
algebras for many years. Dr Marysa Demoor of the
University of Ghent on Belgium became interested in Lucy
Clifford while working on the indexing items
published in the Victorian Journal The Athenaeum.
Mrs Monty Chisholm had researched Lucy
Clifford and discovered the treasure trove of
unpublished letters written to her and saved by her
family. She also traced ,and later, working with Dr
Marysa Demoor, edited and published the 71 letters
from Henry James to Lucy Clifford
The aim of the conference was to celebrate the life,
times and works of William and Lucy, and to
recreate the Victorian intellectual scene when
a cross cultural mix of literary and scientific
interests was not unusual. The glittering
team included Gillian Beer, Regius Professor of
English at Cambridge; Professor Sir Roger Penrose O.M.
of Oxford; Pierre Coustillas, Professor of English
at the University of Lille ; Richard Delanghe, Professor
of Mathematics and the University of Ghent and Honorary
Graduate of the University of Kent; Brian Stewart,
Director of Art Exhibitions for Canterbury ; and from
the Universities staff Professor Mary Evans and Dr Frank
Burnet, Master of Rutherford College. An Exhibition
illustrating the contexts of the Conference was prepared
by the four organizers and supported by the London
Mathematical Society. A separate exhibition entitled 'Quotes
and Profiles' was also prepared by the organizers
with the support of The Graphic Design Unit at the
University of Brighton. The Centre for Cartoons
and Caricature at UKC mounted an exhibition of original
Victorian illustrations, caricatures and twentieth
century cartoons.
The conference was judged to be a huge
interdisciplinary success and there follows below an
appreciation by Professor Ron Shaw of the University of
Hull.
An unusual conjunction
Q. At which conference,
attended by the President of the London
Mathematical Society, did the main
speakers include the Regius Professor of
English Literature, Cambridge, and the
Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics,
Oxford?
A. The one-day "A
Celebration of Two Lives", organized
by Roy and Monty Chisholm and held on 6
May 1995 at the University of Kent at
Canterbury, two of the speakers being
Gillian Beer and Sir Roger Penrose.
The "Two Lives" were those of William
Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879) and Lucy
Clifford (1846-1929). I attended because
of my fairly recently acquired interest
in Clifford algebras, and because I had
previously been impressed by accounts of
Clifford's scientific achievements and
of his full, but tragically short, life.
(W.K. Clifford was a student at Trinity
College, Cambridge, was second wrangler
in the Tripos examination, and was
elected to a Fellowship at Trinity in
1868. In 1871 he was appointed to the
chair of Mathematics and Mechanics at
University College, London, and in 1874
he became a FRS. Unfortunately his
health soon declined and he died of
tuberculosis when aged 33.) However,
prior to the Canterbury meeting, I knew
nothing of Clifford's wife Lucy, and was
surprised to discover that she had quite
a high reputation in literary circles.
(Her obituary in The Times said she was
a "distinguished novelist and for many
years an honoured figure in Literary
London, a link with the great writers
and scientists of the Victorian age."
Apparently in the 1910's and 1920's she
frequently accompanied Henry James to
west-end plays and films, and I believe
she was the only non-family recipient of
a bequest in James' will.)
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The Celebration of Two Lives was introduced by this brief outline
of the lives of the Cliffords:
William Kingdon
Clifford, genius mathematician and philosopher, was born
in Exeter on May 4th 1845, and died of tuberculosis at
the age of 33. His outstanding intellect and vibrant
personality won the respect and friendship of many
leading figures of the age, including William and Henry
James, George Eliot , Thomas Huxley and James Clerk
Maxwell. These friends were the core of William and Lucy
Clifford's salon after their marriage in 1875.
Before her marriage
Lucy had published some fiction. As a widow she had to
support herself and her two children by writing: some of
her novels were best sellers in their time. She lived
for fifty years as William's widow. She widened
the range of her writings and formed close friendships
with many famous personalities in all walks of life.
Her correspondence with these friends provides a
valuable insight into the changing world of London
literary life. She died in 1929.
There were seventy participants at the one day
conference and reviews were published in ....(to be
continued)
THE 'QUOTES AND PROFILES'
EXHIBITION.
(Details of this exhibition will be
entered here soon)
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