As the previous edition of the Bulletin was in the final stages of preparation, we heard the very sad news of the death, following a long illness, of Jackie Stedall. An obituary by Eleanor Robson will appear in the next issue, but I would like to take this opportunity to say a few words of my own.
Jackie took on the editorship of the BSHM Newsletter following the untimely death of John Fauvel in 2001, and supervised its transformation into the BSHM Bulletin in 2004, retiring from the editorship at the end of 2012. The Bulletin owes everything to Jackie: she made it her own, setting high editorial standards, attracting high quality articles covering a wide range of topics, and working with the team at Taylor & Francis to ensure its regular and timely publication. For most of her editorship she had to work very hard to seek out contributions, and it is a measure of her achievement with the Bulletin that the number of articles submitted has grown so substantially over the last few years that the journal has been able significantly to expand.
When I took over from Jackie as editor I benefitted enormously from her advice and guidance. She was very careful not to ‘interfere’ with my decisions (though that would have been no bad thing!) but she provided invaluable support and encouragement. She continued to do a large amount of editorial work and many papers published over the last two years gained from her painstaking editing. Jackie set editorial standards for the Bulletin which, I fear, it will be very hard to maintain without her.
So Jackie's legacy to the Bulletin cannot be over-stated, but I would like to add a personal note. Like so many others, I benefitted from Jackie's encouragement over many years. Like John Fauvel, Jackie had a special talent for supporting and encouraging the work of others. I am sure she would have hated the word ‘networking’, but she created so many opportunities for the most productive kind of networking, bringing people together, supporting young scholars, encouraging sharing. Her books will have a long influence. I was personally particularly inspired by her first two books, on English algebra and Harriot, but perhaps it is the Oxford Handbook of the History of Mathematics (which she edited with Eleanor Robson) and her History of Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction which, by suggesting directions for the future of our subject, will be her most important legacy.
Jackie's friendship was very important to me, as to so many others, and, like the whole history of mathematics community, I am missing her enormously.
As this issue of the Bulletin was going to press we heard with great sadness that former BSHM President Ivor Grattan-Guinness died on 12 December 2014 after a long illness. An obituary will appear in the next issue.