Charles Watkins Merrifield FRS (20 October 1827 – 1 January 1884, Hove) was a British mathematician. Having entered for the Bar, he in 1847 received from the then Marquis of Lansdowne an appointment in the Education Department of the Privy Council Office. Though called to the Bar in due course, he never practised, but was speedily promoted to the office of an Examiner, the duties of which he discharged with marked attention and success, while finding time for other work which made for him a name among men of science. ... He was an early member of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects, of which he was for many years Honorary Secretary, receiving a handsome testimonial on his retirement in 1875. Some mathematical papers he had contributed to the Transactions of some of the learned societie