Died: 24 December 1955 in Blackford, Edinburgh, Scotland

William Greaves' family came from the west of England but were living in Barbados where his father, Eustace C Greaves, was a doctor. William, who was his parents' only son, attended Lodge School, Barbados, from 1905 to 1915, and then spent 1915-16 at Codrington College, Barbados. Having won a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge, he became an undergraduate there studying mathematics and astronomy. He a wrangler of the mathematical tripos of 1919 also being Tyson Medallist in that year. He continued to undertake research at Cambridge being Isaac Newton Student in 1921-3, and was elected a Fellow of St John's College in 1922.

Greaves was appointed Chief Assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in 1924. He held this position until 1938 when he was appointed to the chair of astronomy at the University of Edinburgh and Astronomer Royal for Scotland. He was Professor of Astronomy at Edinburgh from 1938 until his death in 1955. While at Greenwich, Greaves had married Caroline Grace Kitto in 1926; their only son George Greaves became a mathematician.

Articles:

1. W H McCrea, William Greaves obituary, Edinburgh Mathematical Notes 40 (1956) 28-30

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