Robin Farquharson

Robin Farquharson

Reginald "Robin" Farquharson (3 October 1930 – 1 April 1973) was an academic whose interest in mathematics and politics led him to work on game theory, which he wrote an influential analysis of voting systems in his doctoral thesis, later published as Theory of Voting.

Farquharson diagnosed himself as suffering from bipolar disorder (manic depression), and episodes of mania made it difficult for him to obtain a permanent position at a university and also resulted in him losing commercial employment. In later years, Farquharson dropped out of mainstream society, and became a prominent counter-cultural figure in late-60s London. Farquharson wrote an account of his unconventional life in his 1968 book, Drop Out!, in which he described a week of being homeless in London. In 1973 Robin Farquharson died from the burns associated with an arson, for which two persons were convicted of unlawful killing.