Youngest Graduate of University of Glasgow and Assistant to One of Physics’ Greats
Thomas Shields: 1867-1936
Great-granduncle Thomas Shields was a
scholar extraordinaire, succeeding both as a student and as a college
professor. His life story has some fascinating details and some interesting
missing pieces.
Thomas Shields was the second youngest child of Thomas and Margaret Sutherland Shields, and was born June 28, 1867 in New Monkland, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Like his older brothers, he attended Gartsherrie Academy. However, he did not choose to follow in his father’s footsteps as a mechanical engineer. He enrolled at the University of Glasgow and studied electrical engineering and physics.
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| Univ of Glasgow in 1880s |
According to Ruth McNiven, Thomas
became “Lord Kelvin’s bright young man.” Yes, the “degrees Kelvin” guy, the
Scottish physicist who, among other achievements, helped develop the second law
of thermodynamics; the absolute temperature scale (measured in kelvins); the
dynamical theory of heat; the mathematical analysis of electricity and
magnetism, including the basic ideas for the electromagnetic theory of light;
the geophysical determination of the age of the Earth; and fundamental work in
hydrodynamics. That Lord Kelvin.
Ruth was proud of her uncle, noting
that Thomas became the youngest graduate of University of Glasgow, a record
unbroken for half a century.
I found these claims a little hard
to believe, so I set out to investigate them. To my delight, Ruth was telling
the truth.
I was able to locate Thomas’
Graduate Record at the University of Glasgow, and it confirms he received his
MA in 1885, which made him only seventeen years old when he graduated. Lord
Kelvin was a professor at the University of Glasgow for over fifty years, and
1885 was in the center of that timespan, when Kelvin was already renowned in
the field of physics.
As you can see from the University
record I found, Thomas held the position of “Assistant to Lord Kelvin” while at
the university. Quite amazing!
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| Univ. of Glasgow Chemistry students and Laboratory Assistants, 1884-1885 |
By age 23, according to the 1891
Scotland Census, Thomas was working as a “Demonstrator in Physics” and living
in Glasgow with some of his siblings. His employer was not listed, but was
probably still the University of Glasgow. However, as we can see from his
Graduate Record, at some point he moved on to a position as a Lecturer in
Technical Electricity at Yorkshire College, Leeds.
However, Thomas moved on from Leeds
fairly quickly, and spent part of his career as a Demonstrator in Physics and
Lecturer in Electrical Engineering at the Royal Indian Engineering College. The
RIEC was a British college of Civil Engineering run by the India Office to
train civil engineers for service in the Indian Public Works Department. It was
located on the Cooper's Hill estate, near Egham, Surrey. Thomas’ employment
there was confirmed by British census data as well as his Graduate Record.
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| Royal Indian Engineering College where Thomas worked for ten years or so |
Thomas
married an Englishwoman named Hilda Finch Paine on August 28, 1897. Hilda and
her family lived in Egham at the time of the 1891 census, so it is likely
Thomas met her when he took the position at RIEC.
Following their marriage, Thomas
and Hilda moved into a house in Egham charmingly called Holly Cottage, and were
living there at the time of the 1901 England Census. The census shows that two
of their three children had been born by then, Colin, then age two, and infant
Hilda. The young couple also had a servant living with them, so they must have
been fairly comfortable financially.
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| 1911 Census record for Thomas Shields and family |
Sadly, REIC closed in 1906, moving
operations to India. Thomas remained in England, but the family moved from
Egham to West Byfleet in Surrey, a distance of about ten miles. The 1911
England Census shows them living in The White House in West Byfleet. I believe
I have found records of that house, which is on the historical register in
England. Here is a photo of the house today.
I have been unable to find any
further information about Thomas’ later career. Ruth claimed that he ended up
working as a patent attorney—seems an odd change from engineering professor—and
had a beautiful home. However, Ruth said, he lived beyond his means for years,
and his mother made up the difference. I wonder if there was miscommunication
regarding who Ruth was discussing—this doesn’t seem to match with census
records for Thomas at all. It seems unlikely that a man in his forties would go
back to school to radically switch careers from physics professor to attorney.
However, until the 1921 England census records are released in 2022, I will not
be able to investigate further.
I wrote about Thomas’ son Colin in
a previous post—he was an RAF pilot in World War I and died at 21 in an
aircrash. Thomas’ two daughters, Hilda and Cecily, grew up in an era when young
ladies rarely attended a university, so they did not follow their father into a
science career. Cecily married a military officer, Gustaf “Cherry” Baker. Hilda
married Donald McIntyre, a factory manager for several factories in Argentina
and Uruguay, so she spent much of her married life abroad before her early
death at age 38 in 1938.
Thomas preceded his daughter in
death. He died September 19, 1936 at the age of sixty-nine. He left an estate
valued at 11,900 pounds. The equivalent value today is 856,800 pounds, which
works out to $1.189 million in U.S. currency—a substantial estate.
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| Probate record for Thomas Shields |
I wish someone in the immediate
family had been able to talk to Thomas while he was still alive about his
university days. What an exciting time to be studying physics, and to be
working with a man who made such a broad and lasting impact on the field! I’m
sure Thomas had some amazing stories.
Sources:
1884-85 Students and Assistants of Chemical Laboratory, Univ
of Glasgow. https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/chemistry/abouttheschool/history/archivegroupphotos/
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