Doctor John RobinsonAirey, BSc, BA, was a British schoolteacher, mathematician and astrophysicist.
Early life
Airey was the eldest child of William Airey, a stone mason, and Elizabeth Airey, who were both born in Preston under Scar, North Yorkshire. He was the oldest from four siblings, the other three being Elizabeth Ann, Edwin, and Maud. The 1871 census showed the family was living at Hunslet, Leeds; by 1881 they had moved to 28 Grosvenor Street, West Leeds.
Teaching career
In his youth, Airey studied at BlenheimBoard School and Leeds Central High School. He then worked as an teaching assistant at the high school in the science department. At the same time he studied at Yorkshire College for a University of London external B.Sc., which was awarded in 1894. From 1896 Airey taught maths at Porth Intermediate School, Glamorganshire, until 1903. At the age of 35 he left Porth to matriculate at St. John's College, Cambridge for three years as a foundation scholar; reading the Natural Science Tripos. In 1906 he received his Bachelor of Arts with first-class honours. Additionally, he received 3 awards from the college: Wright's prize for distinguished performance, the Hockin prize in electricity and experimental physics, and the Hughes prize for best third-year student. After attaining his degree, Airey went on to work in administering school systems. From 1906 to 1912 he worked as the headmaster of Morley Grammar School, now The Morley Academy. In 1912 he moved to London and became principal of the West Ham Technical Institute, a post he held until 1918. In 1915, while at West Ham, he was awarded a Doctorate of Science by London University. His final position was as principal of the City of Leeds Training College from 1918 until his retirement in 1933. On retirement an Address was presented to him:- In 1926 he was granted a second doctorate, an Sc.D. of Cambridge.
Mathematics
Airey became a member of the Mathematical Tables Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1911 and was its secretary from 1916 to 1929. He published many of his own tables Mathematical Tables and Other Aids to Computation, Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and in Proceedings of the London Physical Society. He was also co-editor of the Philosophical Magazine. When at Cambridge he showed an interest in computation in general, particularly in Bessel and the hypergeometric functions. He spent the rest of his life developing methods to compute these functions and tabulated many sets of functions: Neumann functions, sines and cosines in radian measure, the Lommel-Weber function and the confluent hypergeometric functions. In a collation of notable mathematical table makers, Archibald lists Airey as one of the most prolific compilers of tables, with 49 to his credit. Many of these tables were of relevance to Airey's interest in astronomy and astrophysics. According to Dr Comrie, the British Association's tables of Emden's function were calculated by methods suggested by Airey. Airey joined the Royal Astronomical Society in 1912 and was elected a Fellow in 1931. He joined the Edinburgh Mathematical Society in November 1913, when at West Ham.
