Edmund Taylor Whittaker (1873–1956) was one of the most remarkable mathematical polymaths of modern times. He was a professional mathematician of outstanding scholarship and originality in mathematical analysis and in the mathematics of general relativity and of several other parts of mathematical physics, as well as of classical mechanics. For several years he was a professional astronomer directing an observatory. He then became a celebrated head of a mathematical department. He was a pioneer of the teaching of numerical mathematics and of mathematical statistics. He was a leading historian of mathematical physics.

As a person, Whittaker was without doubt the most influential figure of his time in the mathematical community of the British Isles. This was partly because of the singular sequence of his appointments. As a young lecturer in Cambridge from 1896 to 1906 he had as colleagues or pupils nearly all the leading British mathematicians of two generations. As Royal Astronomer of Ireland from 1906 to 1912, helped by his temperamental affinity, he gained intimate knowledge of the Irish academic world at what proved to be for it a notable vintage period. Then in Edinburgh from 1912 to 1946 he directed what became the leading individual British school of mathematics – those in London, Oxford and Cambridge being more fragmented; there a high proportion of all British mathematicians came under his influence in one capacity or another. Also he became personally acquainted with leading mathematicians throughout the world.