Coins and Historical Medals

SOMERSET, Bath, Kingswood School, The Welsh Medal, 1865, a silver award, unsigned, bust of William Evans three-quarters right, rev. legend around wreath, named (A.C. Dixon, 1880), 41mm, 49.98g. Virtually as struck and toned, rare £70-90

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, British Educational Award Medals from the Collection formed by the late T.H. Watts.

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Kingswood School, founded by John Wesley in 1748, is the world's oldest Methodist educational institution. In 1863 [1865 on the medal] Samuel Evans of Bath gave a medal for the best arithmetician; this medal was known formerly as the Bath Medal and the Welsh Medal, but subsequently as the Evans Medal. Alfred Cardew Dixon (1865-1936), mathemetician, was the son of the Revd George Thomas Dixon, the Wesleyan Minister of Northallerton. He was educated at the Quaker School in Kendal, then Kingswood, where he was considered a prodigy. The history of the school records: “It seems fitting at this point to put on record as extraordinary, a career of examinational success as ever fell to the lot of one candidate. In 1878, at the age of thirteen, A.C. Dixon essayed his first public examination, the Junior Oxford Local; he came out first in the first class. In 1879 he entered for the Senior Oxford; he came out first in the first class. In 1880 he attacked the Senior Cambridge; he was first in the first class. He then turned his attention to London; at the 1882 January Matriculation he was first in the highest (the honours) division. At Intermediate Arts in 1884 he secured the Mathematical Exhibition, at B.A. in 1886 the Mathematical Scholarship, at M.A. in 1887 the Mathematical Medal. Meanwhile, in 1883, he won the first open scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1886 he entered for the Mathematical Tripos.” In 1901 Dixon was appointed to the chair of mathematics at Queen's College, Belfast, retiring in 1930. A devout Methodist, Dixon was active in the Philharmonic Orchestra. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1904 and served as president of the London Mathematical Society from 1931-3