James Ireland Craig

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
James Ireland Craig
Born 1868 (1868)
Buckhaven
Died 1952 (1953) (aged 84)
Cairo
Occupation Scottish mathematician

James Ireland Craig FRSE CBE (1868–1952) was a Scottish mathematician and meteorologist. In cartography he was creator in 1909 of the Craig retroazimuthal projection, often called the Mecca projection, which was created to always preserve true directions on a map (critical in the Muslim faith).

Life

He was born on 24 February 1868 in Buckhaven the son of Captain T M Craig, a pioneer in the development of Borneo, and his wife Agnes. He was educated at Daniel Stewart's College in Edinburgh, where he was school dux for 1885. He then attended Edinburgh University and then Emmanuel College, Cambridge, graduating MA in 1892.[1]

In 1893 he became a Master, teaching mathematics at Eton College then at Winchester College from 1895. In 1896 he moved to Egypt to work for the Egyptian government. In 1908 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for his contributions to cartography. His proposers were George Chrystal, William J MacDonald, John Alison and John Brown Clark.[2]

He returned to Britain during the First World War and was based in London at the Ministry of Food. In the aftermath of the war he was creator Food Controller 1918-20 for Upper Silesia (now SW Poland). In 1925 he returned to Egypt as Controller General, then, from 1928 to 1934, was Financial Secretary to the Egyptian Census. In 1934 (aged already 66) he was made UK Government Commissioner of Customs. He finally retired from employment in 1947, aged 79. He still spent much of his time still in Egypt.[3]

In 1942 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services in Egypt.

He was sadly killed aged 83 in a deliberate fire at the Turf Club in Cairo, set by rioters on 26 January during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.

Family

In 1897 he married Isabella Wilson (died 1948)

Publications

  • The Rains of the Nile Basin and Nile Floods of 1909 (1910)
  • General Theory of Map Projections (1910)
  • Anthropometry of Modern Egyptians (1911)
  • Some General Principles of Surveying' (1911)
  • Egyptian Irrigation (1913)
  • Elements of Analytical Geometry (1930) (published in both English and Arabic)

References

  1. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. Edinburgh Mathematical Notes: obituary by H J L Robbie