Thomas Oliver Harding

Thomas Oliver Harding
As Senior Wrangler, 1873
Born	5 January 1850 Watford,[1] England
Died	17 October 1896(1896-10-17) (aged 46)
Known for	Senior Wrangler at Cambridge University

Thomas Oliver Harding (5 January 1850 – 17 October 1896)[2] was Senior Wrangler at Cambridge University in 1873.

Harding was the son of the Reverend Thomas Harding, a Wesleyan minister, of Whitehaven.[3] He received his early education at Kingswood Wesleyan School near Bath,[1] followed by studies at King's College, London, and then at Trinity College, Cambridge where he took the Mathematical Tripos.[4] The College awarded him the senior mathematical minor scholarship, and elected him to a foundation scholarship in 1871.[1] He was a first-class prizeman in 1870, 1871 and 1872, graduating as Senior Wrangler in 1873[1] and receiving his MA in 1876.[4]

Harding (right of back row) in 1873, the year he became Senior Wrangler; Shakespeare Society, Trinity College, Cambridge

Harding was elected to the Cambridge Apostles in 1872, and as an undergraduate was a keen oarsman and swimmer.[5] He was also elected President of the Cambridge Union.[2] After graduation he became a schoolmaster at Marlborough College,[4] and (according to one source) a barrister.[6]

He died in 1896.[6]

References

1. "List of Honours at the Bachelor of Arts Commencement, January 25, 1873". The Cambridge Chronicle and University Journal. 25 January 1873. p. 8.
2. "Harding, Thomas Olver (HRDN869TO)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. "Bradford". Leeds Times. 25 January 1873. p. 5.
4. Neale, CM (1907). The Senior Wranglers of the University of Cambridge, from 1748 to 1907. Bury St Edmund's: FT Groom and Son. p. 45.
5. Warwick, Andrew (2003). Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics. University of Chicago Press. p. 198.
6. Lubenow, WC (1998). The Cambridge Apostles, 1820-1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 419. ISBN 9780521572132.