CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Edward Lindsay Ince

mathematician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 6, 2025
Entity authorityQ5344149 ↗
Source-derived summary

Prof Edward Lindsay Ince FRSE (30 November 1891 – 16 March 1941) was a British mathematician who worked on differential equations, especially those with periodic coefficients such as the Mathieu equation and the Lamé equation. He introduced the Ince equation, a generalization of the Mathieu equation.

Life

He was born in Amblecote in Worcestershire on 30 November 1891, the only son of Caroline Clara Cutler and her husband Edward Ince, an Inland Revenue officer. The family moved to Criccieth near Portmadoc in Wales soon after he was born. His family moved to Perth in Scotland around 1901, living at 6 Queens Avenue in the Craigie district, to the south-west of the city. He attended Perth Academy.

He studied mathematics at the University of Edinburgh from 1909, graduating in 1913. Failing the medical for World War I service, he won a scholarship and went to the University of Cambridge where he graduated with an MA, and won the Smith's Prize in 1918. That same year he obtained a DSc from the University of Edinburgh. He then began lecturing in mathematics at the University of Leeds In 1920 he moved to the University of Liverpool.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Edward Lindsay Ince” is mathematician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Edward, Lindsay and Ince, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1891, 1941, 1901, 1909—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1891-11-30. For this dossier, Edward, Lindsay and Ince is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “mathematician” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5344149. VIAF identifies the subject as 7463474. The Library of Congress control number is n84802908. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1891, 1941, 1901 and 1909.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Edward Lindsay Ince”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Edward Lindsay Ince primary sources, Edward Lindsay Ince archive and Edward research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Edward Lindsay Ince”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Edward Lindsay Ince” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.