Edward John Routh FRS (/raʊθ/; 20 January 1831 – 7 June 1907) was an English mathematician, noted as the outstanding coach of students preparing for the Mathematical Tripos examination of the University of Cambridge in its heyday in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Routh was born of an English father and a French-Canadian mother in Quebec, at that time the British colony of Lower Canada.

[2] Sir Randolph was Commissary General of the British Army 1826, Chairman of the Irish Famine Relief Commission (1845–48) and Deputy Commissary General, the senior Commissariat officer at the Battle of Waterloo, and Marie Louise was the daughter of Judge Jean-Thomas Taschereau and the sister of Judge Jean-Thomas and Cardinal Elzéar-Alexandre Taschereau.

[2] He attended Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he was taught by Isaac Todhunter and coached by "senior wrangler maker" William Hopkins.

[6] Routh worked conscientiously and systematically, taking rigidly timetabled classes of ten pupils during the day and spending the evenings preparing extra material for the ablest men.

[7] On the reformation of the college statutes, removing the celibacy requirement, Routh was the first person elected to an honorary fellowship by Peterhouse.

[9][10] In addition to his intensive work in teaching and writing, which had a persistent effect on the presentation of mathematical physics, he also contributed original research such as the Routh–Hurwitz theorem.