A Chair of Mathematics was endowed to the University by W. P. Sinclair and the Citizens and Shipowners of Liverpool in 1882. It has been known as a Chair of Pure Mathematics since 1919.
I was extremely honoured to hold this endowed chair in view of its long history and the mathematical achievements of my predecessors in this role (see below). However, I was also disturbed by the likelihood that profits of slavery contributed to its endowment. Slavery was abolished in the UK before the establishment of the University and this chair, but the wealth of Liverpool had been built upon slavery. According to National Museums Liverpool , "From about 1750 until 1807, between a third and a half of Liverpool's trade was with Africa and the Caribbean. Virtually all the leading inhabitants of the town, including the Mayors, Town Councillors and MPs, invested in the slave trade and profited from it. The prosperity and growth of the town was closely connected with its involvement with slavery. When the campaign to abolish the trade began in the 1780s, opposition in the town was strong. Several Liverpudlians spoke in favour of the trade at the parliamentary inquiries and the most prominent were given valuable gifts from the Town Council and several were given the freedom of the borough. A few local abolitionists, like William Roscoe, worked behind the scenes but generally chose not to engage in public debate." I have not been able to find information on W. P. Sinclair and the source of his wealth, but it must be acknowledged that the funds of the "shipowners of Liverpool" that were used in the establishment of the university and this chair are directly or indirectly linked to this crime against humanity.
The University of Liverpool's Centre for the Study of International Slavery is conducting research to examine the University's links to profits of slavery. While I held the chair, I asked for this research to consider, in particular, the source of the endowment associated it. However, I am not aware of an outcome of this research.
The previous holders of the chair are:
The above information is taken from an archived webpage from the University of Liverpool, with the exception of the last two entries. (That website appears to miss out the information that Bill Bruce was translated to the original chair of mathematics when Terry Wall retired in 1999.)
The chair was known as the Chair of Mathematics until 1919, when a Chair of Applied Mathematics was created for Joseph Proudman. Since this point, the original chair has been designated the Chair of Pure Mathematics.