CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

J. F. Cameron

British mathematician, academic and academic administrator

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 revisionMay 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ20711869 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Forbes Cameron (July 1873 – 21 March 1952) was a Scottish mathematician, academic and academic administrator. He was Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge from 1928 to 1948 and was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1933 to 1935.

Early life

Cameron was born in July 1873 in Stanley, Perthshire, Scotland. He was educated at Perth Academy, a state high school in Perth, Scotland. He studied mathematics and natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He was awarded a Ferguson Scholarship, available to graduates of Scottish universities, to attend the University of Cambridge. He studied the Mathematical Tripos at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge from 1895 to 1898. He was tutored by R. R Webb and completed his degree as second wrangler.

Academic career

In 1899, Cameron was elected a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. The following year, in 1900, he was appointed a lecturer in mathematics and in 1909 was appointed a tutor.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “J. F. Cameron” is british mathematician, academic and academic administrator. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cameron, British and mathematician, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1873, 1952, 1928, 1948—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1873-07. For this dossier, Cameron, British and mathematician is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british mathematician, academic and academic administrator” 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 May 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20711869. VIAF identifies the subject as 9523887. The Library of Congress control number is no2002115463. None of the 3 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1873, 1952, 1928 and 1948.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. 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 “J. F. Cameron”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow J. F. Cameron primary sources, J. F. Cameron archive and Cameron 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 “J. F. Cameron”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “J. F. Cameron” 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.