He was a co-founder of the re-established Royal Society of South Africa in 1908 and served as its President from 1936 to 1941.
In 1899 he moved to Cape Colony being offered a professorship in Pure Mathematics at the South African College, and in 1918 moved to the newly created University of Cape Town where he remained until retiral in 1938.
His proposers were William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, Thomas Muir, George Chrystal and John Sturgeon Mackay.
[3] In 1939 the University of Witwatersrand gave him an honorary doctorate (LLD).
He died suddenly in Cape Town on 5 April 1951 following his return from a public meeting.