Muir, Thomas (1844–1934)

Scottish mathematician whose five-volume treatise on the history of determinants 1906–30 made the work of other mathematicians accessible to scholars. Knighted in 1915.

Muir was born in Stonebrye, Lanarkshire, and studied at Glasgow and in Germany at Berlin. In 1874 he resigned a position as assistant professor at Glasgow to become head of the Mathematics and Science Department at Glasgow High School.

From 1892 he was superintendent-general of education in South Africa and vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town.

Although not himself a creative mathematician, Muir published 307 papers, most of them on determinants and allied subjects. His books include A Treatise on the Theory of Determinants (1882) and The Theory of Determinants in its Historical Order of Development (1890).