Kathleen Ollerenshaw

Dame Kathleen Mary Ollerenshaw, born Kathleen Timpson on 1 October 1912 and died on 10 August 2014, was a British mathematician and politician. She became almost completely deaf at the age of eight, learned to lip read and turned to mathematics because it did not depend on hearing. She studied at Somerville College, Oxford, and completed her doctorate there in 1945 on critical lattices under Theo Chaundy, on the strength of five original research papers. After the war she lectured part time at Manchester University and published at least 26 mathematical papers, her best-known contribution being to most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares. Outside mathematics she served as a Conservative councillor in Manchester for twenty-five years, was Lord Mayor of Manchester from 1975 to 1976, helped create the Royal Northern College of Music, and advised Margaret Thatcher's government on education.