Francis Guthrie
Who was Francis Guthrie?
South African mathematician and botanist (1831-1899)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Francis Guthrie (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Francis Guthrie was born on January 22, 1831, in London and studied at University College London. There, he learned mathematics from Augustus De Morgan and botany from John Lindley. He earned his B.A. in 1850 and his LL.B. with first-class honors in 1852. It was during this time, in 1852, that Guthrie came up with a famous problem in mathematics. While coloring a map of English counties, he noticed that no more than four colors were needed to ensure that no two adjacent areas had the same color, suggesting four colors would always be enough for any map. He shared this idea with his brother Frederick, who passed it on to De Morgan, sparking over a century of mathematical study.
Guthrie moved to South Africa on April 10, 1861, where he was welcomed by Dr. Dale, later Sir Langham Dale, a key figure in founding the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1873. Guthrie joined Graaff-Reinet College as a math teacher. While there, he gave a popular series of lectures on botany in 1862, forming a lasting friendship with Harry Bolus, a local resident. Guthrie encouraged Bolus to study botany as a way to cope with the loss of his young son, a friendship that greatly impacted South African botanical science.
When Bolus moved to Cape Town, he convinced Guthrie to come along in 1875. Guthrie worked as a lawyer and edited a newspaper before becoming a professor of mathematics at the South African College, which later became the University of Cape Town. He held this post from 1876 until he retired in 1898, living on his farm at Raapenberg on the Cape Peninsula. During this time, Guthrie balanced his academic work with serious botanical fieldwork, creating a large collection of Cape Peninsula plants.
Guthrie worked closely with Bolus on the Ericaceae family for Flora Capensis, a significant scientific work on southern African plants. Their collaboration lasted until Guthrie died on October 19, 1899, in Claremont, Cape Town. His contributions to botany were significant enough that several plant species were named after him, showing the importance of his work in the Cape region.
Before Fame
Francis Guthrie grew up in London when University College London was one of the few places in Britain offering serious scientific and mathematical training outside the old universities. Founded with secular principles, University College attracted forward-thinking individuals, and Guthrie was taught by two leading figures of the time: Augustus De Morgan, an important figure in formal logic and algebra, and John Lindley, a top botanist of the nineteenth century. This education in both mathematics and natural sciences shaped Guthrie's thinking and set him up for his future successes.
By the time Guthrie finished his LL.B. in 1852 with first-class honors, he had already made his most important mathematical discovery. The Four Colour conjecture he introduced that year remained unproven for over a century, but it caught the attention of top mathematicians over the years. When he moved to the Cape Colony in 1861, he shifted his focus to teaching and botany, fields in which he built another successful career, far from Europe's academic centers.
Key Achievements
- First posed the Four Colour Problem in 1852, one of the most famous conjectures in the history of mathematics
- Served as professor of mathematics at the South African College from 1876 to 1898, an institution that became the University of Cape Town
- Collaborated with Harry Bolus on the Ericaceae family for the Flora Capensis, a foundational reference for southern African botany
- Assembled an extensive collection of Cape Peninsula flora that contributed significantly to the scientific record of South African plant life
- Instrumental in encouraging Harry Bolus to pursue botany, helping to shape the career of one of South Africa's most important nineteenth-century botanists
Did You Know?
- 01.Guthrie posed the Four Colour Problem in 1852 while colouring a map of English counties, but the conjecture he originated was not formally proven until 1976, more than seven decades after his death.
- 02.He advised Harry Bolus to take up botany specifically to help Bolus cope with grief following the death of his six-year-old son, a personal recommendation that helped launch one of South Africa's most important botanical careers.
- 03.Guthrie studied under two giants of Victorian science simultaneously: mathematician Augustus De Morgan, known for De Morgan's laws in logic, and botanist John Lindley, who had helped save the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew from closure.
- 04.Before settling into his academic career at the South African College, Guthrie practiced law at the Bar and also edited a newspaper, making him one of the more unusually versatile figures in Cape Colony intellectual life.
- 05.He lived on a farm at Raapenberg on the Cape Peninsula during his years as a professor, giving him direct access to the rich fynbos flora he spent decades collecting and documenting.