Cockle, James (1819 - 1895)

Summary

Sir James Cockle worked as a Barrister in England from 1846 to 1862, then as Queensland's Chief Justice from 1863 to 1879. His particular interests lay in calculus, algebra, metaphysics and astronomy, publishing around eighty scientific papers.

Details

After completing school, James Cockle spent a year in the United States of America and in the West Indies. Upon his return to England in 1837, Cockle enrolled in law at Trinity College, Cambridge. He completed both a Bachelor and Master of Arts there and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1846. Cockle remained a part of the England legal circuit until 1863. During this time he maintained his interest in mathematics and astronomy and was elected fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1854.

In 1863 James Cockle was appointed Chief Justice of Queensland and during his fifteen years in that position consolidated many colonial statutes. Again this new position did not interfere with his study of mathematics and other related fields and Cockle published widely while in Australia. With fourteen years of service in Queensland's justice system, Cockle took one years leave (with full pay) in 1878 and returned to England with his family. Once the leave period was over he handed in his resignation and successfully fought for a retirement pension. Now fully retired from the bar, James Cockle put all his efforts into his mathematical research. His achievements in both law and mathematics were widely applauded and Cockle received many honours including election as a fellow of the Royal Society (1865), President of the London Mathematical Society (1884-1889) and was knighted in 1869.

Chronology

1842

Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA) completed at Trinity College, Cambridge, UK

1845

Education - Master of Arts (MA) completed at Trinity College, Cambridge, UK

1845 - 1849

Career position - Special Pleader in England

1846 -

Career position - Barrister at the Middle Temple in England

1848 - 1862

Career position - Barrister of the Midland circuit in England

1854

Career position - Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS), UK

1856 -

Career position - Member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society

1862

Career position - Drafted the work Jurisdiction in Homicides Act in England

1863 - 1878

Career position - President of the Queensland Philosophical Society

1863 - 1879

Career position - Chief Justice for Queensland

1865

Career position - Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), England

1866 - 1867

Career position - Senior Commissioner in Queensland

1869

Award - Knighted

c. 1870 -

Career position - Corresponding member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society

1870 - 1885

Career position - Member of the London Mathematical Society

1874 - 1877

Career position - Chairman of Trustees of the Brisbane Grammar School

1876 -

Career position - Honorary member of the Royal Society of New South Wales

1878 -

Life event - Returned to England

1879

Career position - Resigned from the Queensland Bar

1886 - 1888

Career position - President of the London Mathematical Society

1888 - 1892

Career position - Councillor of the Royal Astronomical Society, England

Published resources

Book Sections

• Corley, T. A. B.; and Crilly, A. J., 'Sir James Cockle, 1819-1895' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details
• Marks, E. N., 'Cockle, Sir James (1819-1895)' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 3 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1969), pp. 435-436. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030407b.htm. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3068268. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/56009040. Details
• 'Cockle, James (1819-1895)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1475700. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Cockle, James', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P000092p.htm. Details