page_title: Senior Wrangler
section_title: Senior Wranglers and runners up, 1748–1909
hierarchical_section_title: Senior Wrangler / Senior Wranglers and runners up, 1748–1909
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture of Peter Guthrie Tait, the Scottish physicist
context_page_description: The Senior Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at Cambridge University in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain."
  Specifically, it is the person who achieves the highest overall mark among the Wranglers – the students at Cambridge who gain first-class degrees in mathematics. The Cambridge undergraduate mathematics course, or Mathematical Tripos, is famously difficult.
  Many Senior Wranglers have become world-leading figures in mathematics, physics, and other fields. They include George Airy, John Herschel, Arthur Cayley, James Inman, George Stokes, Isaac Todhunter, Morris Pell, Lord Rayleigh, Arthur Eddington, J. E. Littlewood, Jayant Narlikar, Frank Ramsey, Donald Coxeter, Jacob Bronowski, Lee Hsien Loong, Kevin Buzzard, Christopher Budd, Ben Green, and John Polkinghorne.
  Senior Wranglers were once fêted with torchlit processions and took pride of place in the University's graduation ceremony. Years in Cambridge were often remembered by who had been Senior Wrangler that year.
  The annual ceremony in which the Senior Wrangler becomes known was first held in the 18th century.
context_section_description: During 1748–1909, the top two colleges in terms of number of Senior Wranglers were Trinity and St John's with 56 and 54 respectively. Gonville and Caius was third with 13.
caption: Peter Guthrie Tait, who at 20 years 8 months in 1852 was younger than all previous Senior Wranglers.
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