The outstanding astronomer and former president of the Royal Astronomical Society, Sir William McCrea, has died aged 94. Sir William, who was a professor of astronomy at the University of Sussex and former professor of mathematics at Queen's, was born in Ranelagh in Dublin.
Although he spent most of his academic life outside Ireland, he retained close ties to Ireland and fostered North-South contacts in the 1930s and 1940s when such links were unfashionable. He was also an accomplished researcher with a wealth of published papers to his credit. He died in hospital in Sussex after a short illness.