Background
Macaulay was born on February 11, 1862, in Witney, England, the son of a Methodist minister.
Lansdown Rd, Bath BA1 5RG, United Kingdom
Macaulay was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, a school for the sons of the Methodist clergy.
St John's College, St John's Street, Cambridge CB2 1TP, United Kingdom
In 1882 Macaulay received his Master of Arts degree from St. John’s College, Cambridge.
Macaulay was born on February 11, 1862, in Witney, England, the son of a Methodist minister.
Macaulay was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, a school for the sons of the Methodist clergy. In 1882 he received his Master of Arts degree from St. John’s College, Cambridge.
After graduating with distinction, Macaulay taught mathematics for two years at Kingswood and, from 1885 to 1911, at St. Paul’s School, London, where he worked with senior pupils who were preparing to enter a university. He was remarkably successful: two of his many pupils who became eminent mathematicians were G. N. Watson and J. E. Littlewood. In A Mathematician’s Miscellany, Littlewood gives a vivid picture of Macaulay’s methods: there was little formal instruction; students were directed to read widely but thoroughly, encouraged to be self-reliant, and inspired to look forward to pursuing research in mathematics.
In recognition of his own researches, which he had steadily carried on despite his heavy teaching responsibilities, in 1928 Macaulay was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, a distinction very seldom attained by a schoolmaster. Apart from some elementary articles in the Mathematical Gazette and a school text on geometrical conies, he wrote some fourteen papers on algebraic geometry and a Cambridge tract on modular systems, otherwise polynomial ideals. The earlier papers concerned algebraic plane curves, their multiple points, and intersections, and the Noether and Riemann-Rock theorems. This work led to later papers on the theory of algebraic polynomials and of modular systems. Much of this was pioneering work with an important influence on subsequent research in algebraic geometry, and it was directed toward the construction of a firm and precise basis of algebra on which geometrical theorems could be safely erected.
Nothing is known of Macaulay's family.