Background
Synge was born 1897 in Dublin, Ireland, in a Protestant family and educated at St. Andrew's College, Dublin. He entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1915. He won a Foundation Scholarship in his first year, which was quite remarkable because it was normally won by third year students. While an undergraduate he spotted a non-trivial error in a leading textbook in advanced mathematical analysis, written by E. T. Whittaker, and notified Whittaker of the error. In 1919 he was awarded an M.A. in both Mathematics and Experimental Physics, and also a gold medal for outstanding merit.
He married Eleanor Mabel Allen in 1918. Their daughters Margaret (Pegeen), Cathleen and Isabel were born in 1921, 1923 and 1930 respectively. Synge's daughter Cathleen Synge Morawetz went on to become a distinguished mathematician too. Synge's uncle John Millington Synge was a famous playwright, and Synge is more distantly related to the 1952 Nobel prizewinner in chemistry Richard Laurence Millington Synge. His older brother, Edward Hutchinson Synge, also won a Foundation Scholarship in Trinity for Mathematics, and while his achievements are often overshadowed by his more famous brother, he is known for his pioneering work in optics, particularly in near field optical imaging.
He died on 30 March 1995.
Read more about this topic: John Lighton Synge
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