Dates

• Existence: 1850 - 1934

Biography

Professor William Mitchinson Hicks was the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Sheffield in 1905, having previously been Principal of the former Firth College and University College. Hicks was born in Launceston, Cornwall, in 1850 and was awarded a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge in 1869. He graduated in 1873 and in 1876 took his MA and was elected a fellow of St. John's. In 1883 Hicks left St. John's to take up the position of Principal and Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Firth College, Sheffield. In 1892 he became Professor of Physics and Principal of the University College. Hicks retired to the chair of Physics shortly after the opening ceremony of the new University held on 12 July 1905, not wanting to combine the two roles within the new University. He founded the Basil Hicks Lectureship in memory of his son killed in the first world War of 1914 to 1918. Hicks retired in 1917, moving to Crowhurst, Sussex, where he died in 1934.

Sources: 'Steel City Scholars' Helen Mathers; 'A Story of a Modern History' Arthur W. Chapman; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

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