Talk:Robert Alfred Herman

Ramanujan

The following unreferenced text was removed:

Ranjan was the second Indian to make senior wrangler. Nevertheless, as recounted by Littlewood, Herman was amongst those fellows at Trinty strongly opposed to electing Ramanujan to the fellowship. Herman had been a contemporary and friend of Littlewood's father.

Where did Littlewood mention Herman or Ramanujan? Rgdboer (talk) 21:10, 7 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I am glad to find you removed this text that only hinted at a reference, but you can find JEL's account of his conversation with his old coach quoted, for example, by Bela Bollobas in his article on Ramanujan in the Cambridge Review for 1988, although interesting enough BB does say where JEL recorded the conversation. It is moderately famous, though, as JEL says, ``You can't reject an FRS", to which RAH responds, ``Yes, we thought that a dirty trick". BB's article is not easy to find on the internet, so let me just start you off here by pointing to [1]. Kanigel fleshes out the exchange on pp. 299-300 of his biography of Ramanujan.

Naturally, the conversation would not be significant if it was just anyone saying this; that is why the text you deleted was careful to included JEL standing with RAH. Again, we do not really know, from the way the conversation what grounds RAH had for opposing Ramanujan's election; and, again, the text you deleted balanced rejection here against RAH's coaching the second person from India to make Senior Wrangler, a point I have never seen mentioned when the conversation is quoted.

I can see how, notwithstanding the conversation being part of the literary record, you might still want to challenge it by the standards of Wikipedia. However many times it is repeated in print, does not raise its status above gossip and hearsay, but you can easily imagine it being admitted in a court of law, with JEL being questioned under cross-examination as to his veracity.

Tripos of 1898

The following referenced text was removed allegedly because it does not conform with a ``biog":

although the then unprecedented move to have Jeans and Hardy take the Tripos a year early, with its attendant risks, was taken by Gilbert Walker, who promised the pair they would never regret it (as recounted by E. A. Milne in his biography of Jeans)

This may overlook the recent reissue of Milne's biography of Jeans by the CUP:

E. A. Milne

Sir James Jeans: A Biography (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1952; 2013) 192pp [2]

The passage in question is at pp. 4--5: [3].

Again, I agree that the book could be challenged because Milne died in 1950, making it a posthumous work; perhaps the text was tampered with, or is otherwise unreliable. But, then, what makes the ``biog" more reliable than a book at least purportedly by Milne himself, and, hitherto, always treated as such? The text, as deleted, claims no more.

Of course, the passage also makes nonsense of what C. P. Snow tells us about the G. H. Hardy and the Tripos of 1898, so that may be another challenge. The simple facts of the matter are that G. T. Walker was responsible for JHJ and GHH vis a vis Trinity College, not RAH, and both undergraduates did take their Tripos a year early. In all probability, CPS did not check his facts, but also probably did not much care. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.180.1.214 (talk) 23:16, 8 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the direction to Milne's 1952 book. I did not find the information in his Obituary Notice for Royal Society yesterday. Due to the passage on pp 4,5 the reference to Jeans and Hardy has been removed from this article. The passage has now been quoted at James Hopwood Jeans. Just a reminder: Talk contributions are to be signed with four tildes.Rgdboer (talk) 22:09, 9 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The earlier assertion that Herman was coach for Jeans and Hardy was based on a list in Andrew Warwick's Masters of Theory. Preference has been given to Milne's information as it concerns particular individuals.Rgdboer (talk) 21:18, 12 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]