Education and early life

He was born in Halewood on 21 May 1873, the eldest of the six children of farmer William Grace and Elizabeth Hilton. He was educated at the village school and the Liverpool Institute.

From there in 1892 he went up to Peterhouse, Cambridge to study mathematics. His nephew, his younger sister's son, was the animal geneticist, Alan Robertson FRS.

Okell's Farm (left) in Halewood Village (1894)

Census 1901: Family of William Grace, Okell's Farm, Halewood Village

St Nicholas Church School where John Hilton Grace attended in the 1870s/1880s

Liverpool Institute for Boys where John Hilton Grace attended in the 1880s/1890s

1895 - Okell's Farm

Research and career

He was made a Fellow of Peterhouse in 1897 and became a Lecturer of Mathematics at Peterhouse and Pembroke colleges. An example of his work was his 1902 paper on The Zeros of a Polynomial. In 1903 he collaborated with Alfred Young on their book Algebra of Invariants.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1908 and spent 1916–1917 as Visiting Professor in Lahore, deputising for Professor MacDonald at Aberdeen University during the latter part of the war.

After 1918 his academic output slowed which was due to a breakdown in his health. This resulted in his retirement from University life, but after moving to Frizzleton in Norfolk he produced a steady flow of papers from 1926 to 1930, and two later papers, the work of his old age.

John Hilton Grace died in Huntingdon on 4 March 1958 and was brought home to be interred in the family grave at St. Nicholas Church, Halewood.

1939 Census - Okell's Farm
John, now retired, living at Frizzleton, Norfolk
(Recorded halfway down the page)

Frizzleton, Norfolk

Mike Royden

John Hilton Grace - Mathematician John Hilton Grace obituary, by J. A. Todd, published in the Journal of the London Mathematical Society in January 1959, gives a more detailed study of his academic life and achievements.