Henry Thomas Mackenzie Bell

“ WHITEHEAD, CHARLES (1804–1862) , poet, novelist, and dramatist, the son of a wine merchant, was born in London in 1804. He began life as a clerk in a mercantile house, but soon adopted literature as his profession. In 1831 he published ‘The Solitary,’ a poem in the Spenserian stanza, showing genuine imagination. The poem won the approval of Professor Wilson in the ‘Noctes Ambrosianæ,’ and of other critics of eminence. ”

“ He sank into abject want, and died miserably in a Melbourne hospital on 5 July 1862. He was buried in a pauper's grave, and the authorities refused the request made by friends, when they heard for the first time of his sad end, to remove his remains to a fitting tomb. ”

“ Throughout his career mathematics remained Harley's chief study. He devoted much time to higher algebra, especially to the theory of the general equation of the fifth degree. His conclusions, which were published in 'Memoirs of the Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc' 1860, xv. 172-219, were independently reached at the same time by Sir James Cockle [q. v.] . Harley's two further papers on the 'Theory of Quintics' (in 'Quarterly Journal of Mathematics' 1860-2, iii. 343-59; v. 248-60) , and an exposition of Cockle's method of symmetric products in 'Phil. ”