Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/666

 which his place in the tripos scarcely did justice. While an undergraduate he was principal editor with Charles Taylor and others of the ‘Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin Messenger of Mathematics,’ started at Cambridge in November 1861. The publication was continued as ‘The Messenger of Mathematics’; Whitworth remained one of the editors till 1880, and was a frequent contributor. His earliest article on ‘The Equiangular Spiral, its Chief Properties proved Geometrically’ (i. 5–13), was translated into French in the ‘Nouvelles Annales de Mathématiques’ (1869). An important treatise on ‘Trilinear Co-ordinates and other Methods of Modern Analytical Geometry of Two Dimensions’ was issued at Cambridge in 1866. Whitworth's best-known mathematical work, entitled ‘Choice and Chance, an Elementary Treatise on Permutations, Combinations and Probability’ (Cambridge, 1867), was elaborated from lectures delivered to ladies at Queen's College, Liverpool, in 1866. A model of clear and simple exposition, it presents a very ample collection of problems on probability and kindred subjects, solutions to which were provided in ‘DCC Exercises’ (1897). Numerous additions to the problems were made in subsequent editions (5th edit. 1901).

Meanwhile Whitworth was ordained deacon in 1865 and priest in 1866, and won a high repute in a clerical career. He was curate at St. Anne's, Birkenhead (1865), and of St. Luke's, Liverpool (1866–70), and perpetual curate of Christ Church, Liverpool (1870–5). His success with parochial missions in Liverpool led to preferments in London. He was vicar of St. John the Evangelist, Hammersmith (1875–86), and vicar of All Saints', Margaret Street, Marylebone, from November 1886 till his death. He also held from 1885 the sinecure college living of Aberdaron with Llanfaebrhys in the diocese of Bangor (1885), and was from 1891 to 1892 commissary of the South African diocese of Blomfontein. Whitworth was select preacher at Cambridge in 1872, 1878, 1884, 1894, and 1900, Hulsean lecturer there (1903–4), and was made a prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1900.

Whitworth, who had been brought up as an evangelical, was influenced at Cambridge by the scholarship of Lightfoot and Westcott, and he studied later the German rationalising school of theology. As a preacher he showed critical insight and learning. His sympathies lay mainly with the high church party, and in 1875 he joined the English Church Union. In the ritual controversy of 1898–9 he showed moderation, and differed from the union in its opposition to the archbishops' condemnation of the use of incense. He contended that the obsolete canon law should not be allowed ‘to supersede the canonical utterance of the living voice of the Church of England.’ His ecclesiastical position may be deduced from his publications: ‘Quam Dilecta,’ a description of All Saints' Church, Margaret St., 1891; ‘The Real Presence, with Other Essays,’ 1893, and ‘Worship in the Christian Church,’ 1899. Two volumes of sermons were published posthumously: ‘Christian Thought on Present Day Questions’ (1906) and ‘The Sanctuary of God’ (1908). He also published ‘The Churchman's Almanac for Eight Centuries,’ a mathematical calculation of the date of every Sunday (1882).

Whitworth died on 12 March 1905 at Fitzroy House Nursing Home after a serious operation (28 February) and was buried at Brookwood in ground belonging to St. Alban's, Holborn. There is a slab to his memory in the floor of All Saints' Church, Margaret Street. He married on 10 June 1885 Sarah Louisa, only daughter of Timms Hervey Elwes, and had issue four sons, all graduates of Trinity College, Cambridge.



WHYMPER, EDWARD (1840–1911), wood-engraver and mountain climber, born at Lambeth Terrace, Kennington Road, on 27 April 1840, was the second son of Josiah Wood Whymper by his first wife, Elizabeth Whitworth Claridge. He was privately educated. While still a youth he entered his father's business in Lambeth as a wood-engraver and in time succeeded to its control. For many years he maintained its reputation for the production of the highest class of book illustration, until towards the close of the last century the improvement in cheap photographic processes destroyed the demand for such work. His woodcuts may be found in his own works, the ‘Alpine Journal,’ and many books of travel between 1865 and 1895; among his more important productions were Josef Wolf's ‘Wild Animals’ (1874) and Cassell's ‘Picturesque Europe’ (1876–1879).

Edward, though he seldom exhibited, was,