Harold Davenport

Harold Davenport's father, Percy Davenport, worked in the office of Perseverance Mill, a cotton mill in Huncoat, near Accrington. At first a clerk, he became the company secretary. He married Nancy Barnes, one of the daughters of John Barnes, the owner of the mill. Their first child, Harold, was born on the 30th October, 1907, their only other child Grace was born a few years later. When 10 or 11 years old, Harold started at Accrington Grammar School, and later he wrote that he had had on the whole a very happy and enjoyable time there. He discovered the public library, and read every work of Dickens that he could obtain. He maintained and extended his interest in the English classics throughout his life. He was much inspired by his chemistry master, Mr. Ackroyd, and by his mathematics mistress, Miss Heap," a lady with enthusiasm for mathematics, who paid no attention —thank God—to any regular syllabus or curriculum there may have been". He specialized in these two subjects, and in 1924 obtained scholarships from Lancashire County and from Manchester University that enabled him to spend the next three years, from the age of 16 to 19, at Manchester University. He went to Manchester University with the intention of taking both Honours Mathematics and Honours Chemistry, but was forced to make a choice between the two. For better or worse he chose mathematics. It is clear, from what he wrote later, that he enjoyed the mathematical content of his course, but was rather too shy to take full advantage of the social and cultural opportunities. In particular, he learnt real analysis from C. Walmsley, complex analysis from L. J. Mordell, and applied mathematics from E. A. Milne. He obtained his degree in 1927 with First Class Honours. Encouraged by Milne, he had entered for, and obtained, a Scholarship to Trinity, and now left home for Cambridge to take a second first degree; it was quite usual in those days for graduates from other universities to spend two years taking a Cambridge degree. He quickly found himself one of a group of mathematical friends, including H. S. M. Coxeter, R. E. A. Paley, D. H. Sadler and H. D. Ursell. His main recreations were walking, the cinema and the theatre. His Directors of Studies were R. H. Fowler for Applied Mathematics and S. Pollard and later A. S. Besicovitch for Pure Mathematics.