Hallard Croft

Hallard Thomas Croft was an English mathematician.

Life and career

Born in Bromley, he was educated at City of London School and earned a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1961, under John Edensor Littlewood's supervision. A fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, from 1963 to 2003, in 1967 he invented a geometric shape called Croft's Tortoise and in 1991 he co-authored Unsolved Problems in Geometry with Kenneth Falconer and Richard K. Guy.
Croft clashed with Hugh Trevor-Roper after the latter became Master of Peterhouse in 1980 when Croft was Director of Studies in mathematics and Senior Fellow; Croft's conservatism led him to deeply dislike Trevor-Roper, and the upshot was that he was re-elected as a Fellow in 1983 without his seniority. Friends suggested that Trevor-Roper disliked Croft because of his homosexuality.