Private Edwin James George Pitman
by Sheila Byard
Private Edwin J.G. Pitman’s attestation form shows his father’s name more correctly as Edwin E. M. (Edward Major) Pitman, and that he was resident at time of enlistment at the family home 9 Smith St, Kensington.
Private Pitman was 20 years of age and about to begin 3rd year Science at the University of Melbourne when with his parents' consent, he volunteered on 24 January 1918. The Extract of Birth entry supplied on 5 February 1918 show he was born on Kensington Hill on 29 October 1897, fourth child and the eldest son of Edwin Pitman and his wife Ann, nee Hookes, who had married after meeting on board ship coming from England. Edwin Pitman senior’s occupation at the time of his marriage was Engine Driver. Later he was responsible for the engine at the Morwell Brown Coal mine, and worked for a firm making prime movers and other machinery.
The family had lived at other several locations in Kensington and Flemington before settling in Smith St. Although the family had few books, it is said that Edwin while a student at Kensington State School, developed a love of reading through the influence of his Sunday School teacher, an employee at the flour mill, “who had a large library and would let him borrow any books that interested him”. (Williams, 1994).
While completing his secondary education at the South Melbourne College he had been a school cadet with 53 Battalion, Albert Park. A brilliant student, he had topped the State in mathematical subjects in the public examinations, winning the Wyselaskie and Dixson Scholarships in Mathematics as well as residential scholarship for Ormond College, and began a combined Science/Arts course. At Ormond College he was taught by D. J. Picken, the then Master, a New Zealander who had been teaching advanced mathematics. During university studies Edwin was a member of Melbourne University Rifles for 18 months. He obtained Exhibitions (top place) in the various mathematics subjects that formed part of first two years of his course.
At the time of his enlistment he expressed preference for the Artillery but began his service as part of the 2nd reinforcement of the Victorian General Service Group. He spent the period between 20 April and 20 August 1918 with the Army Pay Office at Laverton, finally embarking on 31/8/1918 on the A37 Barambah with the 1-17 Reinforcements. While at sea he spent 3 days in the ship’s hospital with influenza.
A37 Barambah departing Port Melbourne, 1916, watched by well-wishers
on the wharf. Australian War Memorial Collection http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/PB0229
Arriving in London three days after the Armistice, Pitman was immediately attached to the Reinforcements for the 14th Battalion, where he worked in the Pay Corps. As a temporary Corporal from April 1919 after a few months in the Pay Corps, he transferred to AIF Headquarters while he had 6 months paid leave to attend the Berlitz School of Languages, Oxford St, to study German and French. He was also able to attend classes at the London School of Economics. He returned to Australia on the Raranga and was discharged on 11 November 1919.
Shortly before his return to Australia, his mother wrote to the Officer in Charge Base records, St Kilda Road 9 on October 1919, saying that the family had moved from Kensington to ‘Ungeley’, Service St, Hampton, a house subsequently shown in correspondence to do with the issue of the British War Medal as at 53 Service St, Hampton. It is relevant to note that Smith St is one of the parts of Kensington affected by the exceptional storm event and flooding in 1916.
Edwin J.G. Pitman returned to study after the War, completing the BA. (1921), B.Sc. (1922) and M.A. (1923). He also served as Acting Professor of Mathematics at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand (1922-23). On his return from New Zealand he was Tutor in Mathematics and Physics at Trinity and Ormond Colleges and Part-time Lecturer in Physics at the University of Melbourne (1924-25). Then in 1926 he became Professor of Mathematics at the University of Tasmania, a position he held for nearly 40 years – retiring in 1962.
He was a founding member and second President of the Australian Mathematical Society. He was also active within the Statistical Society of Australia, which in 1978 named the Pitman medal in his honour. He was a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, he was elected in 1954, in the first group of elected Fellows.
Sources:
Australian Academy of Science, Memoirs
http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/aasmemoirs/pitman.htm - This memoir prepared by Evan J. Williams was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 10, no. 2, 1994.
Obituary for E. J. G. Pitman published in the Australian Journal of Statistics, Volume 35, Issue 2, p.246, June 1993.
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