# Need a 19th century math genius and military man



## JoanDrake (May 14, 2014)

As a main character in an alt history I'm planning I need an actual historical figure who was a British military officer and a known mathematical genius. He must be a rough contemporary of Michael Faraday (1791-1867). He also must be an inveterate innovator. It wouldn't hurt if he had some reputation as ruthless, though I'm not really looking for a villain so that may be optional.

 I have considered Napoleon but he's too early and had a well known conservative attitude toward technology. Also, he's too strong a figure. 

 My best candidate  so far is John Cochrane, (1798-1878 ) who is mainly remembered as one of the nineteenth century's strongest chess players with a 'dashing' style.  He also came from a distinguished British military family which included one Admiral known for his innovative tactics. The problem is that his own military career never went beyond midshipman. Enough, I suppose, but just barely. 

 Can anyone think of someone better?


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## ralphkern (May 27, 2014)

William Playfair, a Scottish engineer, was the founder of graphical statistics. Besides that signature accomplishment, he was at various times in his life a banker, an accountant, a journalist, an economist, and one of the men to storm the Bastille. 

It's difficult to overstate his importance. He was the inventor of the line graph, bar chart, and the pie chart.  He also pioneered the use of timelines. You're probably familiar with his work.


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## ralphkern (May 27, 2014)

Copy and pasted from business insider


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## ralphkern (May 27, 2014)

Although might be a bit early, his storming days were 1789


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## Venusian Broon (Jun 6, 2014)

This may not fit your brief at all for the person you need for your story, but...

...what about the husband of Ada Lovelace - William King (or to give him his full title: William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace) 

A nobleman and apparently a scientist, he _may_ have tutored Ada in maths when she was young (and had a scandalous affair with her...). He was also Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey for a large part of his life, which on paper put him in charge of the county militia.  

However his connection with Ada could open the door to write about her work as the 'first computer programmer' and her own mathematics ability but also Babbage, Brewster, Dickens, Byron and loads of others that she socially mixed with. She was of course also connected to Faraday, so I guess Earl Lovelace may well have easily mixed with all these people.

However, I'm not sure he actually ever went to battle - the Lord-Lieutenant role was possibly much more of a civil and honorary roll rather than an military role. Possibly not dashing enough!


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