ALDIS, WILLIAM STEADMAN (1839-1928) was a son of the Rev. John Aldis, a Baptist minister, and was (according to The Times) the doyen of a noted family of mathematicians, including five high wranglers, among them the inventor of the Aldis lens and unit sight.

Born in London, Aldis was educated at the City of London School and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he entered in 1858 and was senior wrangler of his year in 1861. The Times says: "His success was indirectly of public importance. No one could take a fellowship in any college without signing a declaration that he was a bona fide member of the Church of England. For 13 years Trinity had failed to secure a senior wrangler. In 1860 there was Stirling, who was afterwards Lord Justice, but he, being a United Presbyterian, refused to sign the declaration. In 1861 Aldis made the same refusal. This succession of brilliant achievements, coupled with the subsequent conspicuous success of Aldis's two younger brothers, set on foot an agitation which ended in the abolition of the religious tests at both Oxford and Cambridge in 1871."

Aldis remained at Cambridge as a private mathematical tutor for some years. In 1870 he was appointed professor of mathematics and physical science at the new college at Newcastle-on-Tyne (now Armstrong College) and he was principal of this institution when he received the appointment as professor of mathematics at Auckland University College. He married (1863) Mary, daughter of the Rev. William Robinson, also a Baptist. Mr and Mrs Aldis were leading advocates of the higher education of women and drew up a petition for the admission of women to examinations and degrees in the universities which was extensively signed throughout the United Kingdom. The outcome of this movement was that women were allowed to compete in the Tripos examinations on the same terms as men.

Aldis's connection with Auckland University College terminated in 1894 as the result of a difference with the council. He then returned to England and spent some years at Oxford employed as an examiner for the universities. On his retirement he resided in Tenterden, Kent, where he died on 7 Mar 1928. Aldis was not only a man of very wide general knowledge, but he had a particularly lovable and unselfish nature, and was greatly interested in political and social movements. His books on Solid Geometry and Optics were for many years standard works.

Auckland Univ. Calendar; A. and M. Aldis (information); N.Z. Herald, 27 Nov 1893; The Times (London), 13 Mar 1928.

Reference: Volume 1, page 20

🌳 Further sources