Kathleen Ollerenshaw

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Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw DBE, born October 1, 1912, is a mathematician and a politician. She is from Withington, Manchester.

Born Kathleen Timpson, as a child she loved doing arithmetic problems. Although deaf since age eight, she gained a place at Somerville College Oxford University to study mathematics, despite her teacher's discouragement. She bluffed her way through the interview by guessing the question 'What did you do in the summer holidays?'. She went on to complete a doctorate.

She was married to Colonel Robert Ollerenshaw, to whom she became engaged as an undergraduate. He was a distinguished military surgeon, a pioneer of medical illustration and had been High Sheriff of Greater Manchester from 1978 to 1979.

Ollerenshaw served as a Conservative Councillor for Rusholme for twenty six years, became Lord Mayor of Manchester from 1975 to 1976, and was the prime motivator in the creation of the Royal Northern College of Music. She was made a Freeman of the City of Manchester and was an advisor on educational matters to Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s.

She published numerous scientific papers, her most significant contribution being to most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares.

Also a keen amateur astronomer, she donated her telescope to Lancaster University, and an observatory there bears her name. She is a member of the Manchester Astronomical society where she held the post of vice president for a number of years.

Dame Kathleen is one of the most eminent former pupils of St Leonards School in St Andrews, Fife and served as the school's president for many years in later life, recently being succeeded by Baroness Byford, Conservative spokeswoman in the House of Lords.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has dedicated her his Naxos Quartet No.9.^[1]

She was knighted in 1971.

[edit] References

Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, To Talk of Many Things: An Autobiography, Manchester Univ Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7190-6987-4
Kathleen Ollerenshaw, Herman Bondi, Magic Squares of Order Four, Scholium Intl, 1983, ISBN 0-85403-201-0
Kathleen Ollerenshaw, First citizen, Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1977, ISBN 0-246-10976-9
K.M. Ollerenshaw K.M. D.S. Brée, Most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares. Mathematics Today, 1998, thirty four, 139-143. ISSN 1361-2042.
D.S. Brée and K.M. Ollerenshaw, Pandiagonal magic-squares from mixed auxiliary squares. Mathematics Today, 1998, thirty four, 105-118. ISSN 1361-2042.