Fritz Ursell
British mathematician (1923-2012)
Fritz Joseph Ursell FRS (28 April 1923 – 11 May 2012) was a British mathematician noted for his contributions to fluid mechanics, especially in the area of wave-structure interactions. He held the Beyer Chair of Applied Mathematics at the University of Manchester from 1961 to 1990, was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1972 and retired in 1990.
Education
Ursell came to England as a Jewish refugee in 1937 from Germany, and was educated at Marlborough College. From 1941 to 1943 he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with a bachelor degree in mathematics.
Career
At the end of 1943 Ursell joined the Admiralty as a part of a team—headed by George Deacon —whose task was to formulate rules for forecasting waves for the allied landings in Japan. Their findings have become the basis of modern wave-forecasting. Ursell stayed in the Admiralty until 1947. In 1947 he was appointed to a post-doctoral fellowship in applied mathematics
at Manchester University without a doctorate. In 1950 he returned to Cambridge as lecturer. There he met G. I. Taylor.
“Fritz Ursell” enters the record as british mathematician (1923-2012). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fritz, Ursell and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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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 Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5505033. VIAF identifies the subject as 50870083. The Library of Congress control number is n91096903. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 2012, 1961 and 1990.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fritz Ursell” 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.