Researching George Mathews

Born in Augusta County in the Virginia Colony, Mathews was in early life a merchant and planter. As an officer in the colonial militia, he gained statewide fame for his role in the Battle of Point Pleasant of Dunmore's War. He was afterward elected to the House of Burgesses from Augusta County, but did not attend a session. On the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, he served as colonel of the 9th Virginia Regiment in the Continental Army. He and his entire regiment were captured on October 4, 1777 in the Battle of Germantown. Mathews spent the next four years as a prisoner of war, including two years on a British prison ship. He was brevetted brigadier general at the end of the war.

After the war, Mathews moved to the state of Georgia and was quickly elected governor of the state. He served two nonconsecutive terms, voted to ratify the United States Constitution, and served in the 1st United States Congress. His second term as governor was overshadowed by his involvement in the Yazoo Land Fraud, which lead to his political downfall.

Mathews relocated to the Mississippi Territory and in 1810 was sent as a secret agent by President James Madison to annex the Spanish territory of East Florida for the United States. Mathews was unable to claim the territory peacefully, so he created an insurrectionist force that captured Ferninanda Beach and Amelia Island and turned them over to the U.S. This act, now referred to as the Patriot War of East Florida, was denounced by Spain and its allies. Madison, under political pressure, disavowed Mathews' actions. The vagueness of Madison's instructions to Mathews have led to significant debate among historians as to whether Mathews acted outside of the purview of his mandate.

He was born in London. He studied at the Ludlow Grammar School which had instruction in Hebrew and Sanscrit as well as in Greek and Latin. He proceeded to University College, London where Olaus Henrici made him "realise that mathematics is an inductive science, not a set of rules and formulae." He then took up preparation for Cambridge Mathematical Tripos under the guidance of William Henry Besant. He came out Senior Wrangler for 1883. He was elected a Fellow of St John's College.

In 1884 University College of North Wales was established under Principal Harry Reichel and Mathews as professor of mathematics. He taught alongside Andrew Gray, James Johnston Dobbie and Henry Stuart Jones. There he produced his first textbook Theory of Numbers. Part I (1892), an introduction to number theory. (It is likely that the book was studied by Ramanujan before he left for England in 1914.) In 1896, discouraged at the preparation and dedication of students, Mathews resigned and moved to Cambridge.

Mathews was elected to the Royal Society in 1897. He worked as University Lecturer at Cambridge University. In 1906 he resigned from Cambridge.

Returning to Bangor, Wales, he again took up teaching at University College of North Wales. He produced his book Algebraic Equations in 1907. His book on projective geometry (1914) is noted for its attention to foundations and its exposition of Karl von Staudt’s approach to imaginary units. In 1915 Glasgow University bestowed an honorary L.L.D. upon him. In 1922 he and Andrew Gray published a book on Bessel's functions.

Mathews was weakened by poor nutrition under the rationing due to World War I. He had surgery in 1919, a seizure in 1921, and never recovered. Describing his friend, Andrew Gray wrote that Mathews was "a classical scholar and deeply interested in philosophical questions of all kinds...His mind was keen and tongue sharp." Gray also noted that Mathews was "exceedingly sensitive, and almost morbidly afraid of appearing to put himself forward in any way, so that he hardly received the recognition that was due him."

Mathews authored a large number of book reviews for the scientific journal Nature. These short essays gave him ample opportunity for expression. For example, under the title "Mathematics and Civilisation", reviewing three German monographs, he wrote, "history of culture...change of habits of thought...nothing whatever has contributed so much as the study of pure mathematics." He cites author A. Voss asserting that "mathematics is pre-eminently a creation of the spirit of man; it is his least restricted field of activity, and we are under a moral obligation to cultivate it." In a review in 1916 he predicted World War II::England's contempt for science, which all who know have been protesting for a generation, will, if not amended, bring her down in sorrow to the ground, whatever the issue of the present war, which will be followed by one of much greater intensity, for which the weapons will be forged, not by hands, or machines, but by brains.

Mathews was born in Brooklyn, New York.

Mathews was tall (6' 1.5"). His career on stage began in the early 1930s, when he failed to get a job with the U.S. Mail. He joined the W.P.A. Theatre, and landed a role in the play Processional (1937) as Dynamite Jim.

Mathews was often cast as heavies or hardened military types. He appeared in both the stage (1942–43) and film version (1944) of The Eve of St. Mark, as Sergeant Ruby. He also portrayed comic thugs in Pat and Mike (1952), starring Katharine Hepburn, and in the Garson Kanin-directed musical comedy Do Re Mi (1960–62), as Fatso O'Rear, starring Phil Silvers. In 1962 he appeared in Have Gun – Will Travel, Season 6, Episode 6. He also demonstrated his comedic talent in the short-lived television comedy series Glynis (1963), playing ex-cop Chick Rogers, who assists a mystery writer and amateur sleuth, played by Glynis Johns, in solving "whodunnits", He was also in the Broadway play Catch Me If You Can in 1965. Perhaps his most memorable role was as Harvey in The Bensonhurst Bomber episode of The Honeymooners. He also played the bar owner, John Shanssey, who helped Doc Holliday from hanging in "Gunfight At The OK Corral".

Mathews retired from the screen in 1972.