Barlow, Edward William [Capt., B.Sc., FRAS, FRMetS] (1886-1961), born Beckenham, Kent, a meteorologist with a university education. With an interest in astronomy he was published in the journals of both the RAS and Royal Met. Society. His interests included observing solar eclipses and stellar photography using a 4½-inch refractor (Stroobant 1907, 42; Barlow 1914; Barlow 1927).
Bayly, William (1737-1810), born at Bishops Cannings, near Devizes. In 1771 he was appointed assistant to the astronomer royal Nevil Maskelyne at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. He then served as astronomer on Captain Cooks Second Voyage to the South Seas. After his eturn to England he was appointed headmaster of the Royal Naval Academy in Portsmouth Dockyard in 1785. (ODNB).
Berthon, Edward Lyon [Revd.] (1813-1899), born London he took holy orders at Magdalene College, Cambridge being ordained in 1845. He moved to Hampshire in 1849 where he was first given the curacy at Lymington and the living of Fareham (1847-57) before moving to Romsey. Interested in mechanical engineering and design, during his lifetime he put his skills to designing collapsible boats, a screw propellor and a sea anchor. He also constructed equatorial reflecting telescopes (except optics) and a type of observatory that bear the name of where he lived. At the Paris Exhibition in 1878 he received a silver medal for one of 12½-inch reflector. A year before his death he completed a 16 ½ inch, ten feet focal length telescope complete with observatory. This was constructed at his boat yard for export to South Africa. Sir Howard Grubb supplied the optics. Many of his telescopes went to other priests, such as the Reverend Thomas William Webb. Elected to the RAS, he only delivered one paper, ‘On the Equestrian Equatorial’ (1874)- this style of mount derived its name from the double counter weights looking like a riders legs on a horse. Berthon is perhaps best remembered these days in the amateur astronomical community for his ‘dynamometer’. It is used to measure the diameter of the pencil of light rays emerging from the eyepiece of a telescope – known as the ‘Ramsden Disc’, now ‘Exit Pupil’. He also wrote an autobiography, A Retrospect of Eight Decades (ODNB; Obit., MNRAS, 60 (1900), 314-6).
Bradley, John (1728-1794), nephew of James Bradley, was appointed assistant to his uncle at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. A post he held for 14 years before being appointed by the Board of Longitude to test the Lunar Method with Capt. Campbell on HMS Essex (1757-9) and the testing of Harrison’s H4 (1764). In 1767 he was appointed mathematics master at the Royal Naval Academy Portsmouth a position he held for the next 27 years. In 1769 he lead a Transit of Venus expedition to the Lizard Peninsula to accurately determine its longitude to improve naval charts (see County of London; Kennett 2015).
Bridger, J.H. (1869-1938), born Farnborough, a music teacher residing in the same town as his birth. His astronomical interests lay in planetary, double/variable stars and meteor observations. Bridger used a 4-inch Browning refractor on an altazimuth mount. He submitted observations to both the BAA and RAS, including the 1914 transit of Mercury (Stroobant 1907, 82; Report of Meteoric Observations, MnBAA, 9 (1901), p.2).
Burney, William [Dr] (c,1762-1832), born Ireland, who established and ran the Naval Academy at Coldhabour, Gosport. The teaching establishment provided nautical and mathematical education for naval officers hoping to join the Royal Navy. It is described as having an observatory (Obit., GentMag, 151 (1832 March), p.279; Hutton 1815, 129).
Dennett, Frank Compton (1857-1926), born Winchester, insurance agent, science/astronomical writer and lecturer. Wrote variously in the Astronomical Registrar, The Observatory and Nature. Later lived in Southampton (1878-81) and Hackney, London (1891-1926) (see County of London).
Drew, John (1809-1857) born Bower Chalk, but received little formal education. At the age of 15 he took up teaching; about age 17 he went to Southampton where for the following 16 years he ran his own school. He made his first astronomical observations using a small refractor, which was later replaced with a 5-foot Dollond equatorial, installed in a small observatory in his garden. Using a transit circle by Thomas Jones and a Beaufoy clock lent by the Royal Society, he made accurate determinations of time, supplying them for ships leaving Southampton. He also published on astronomy and its apparatus. Reviewed the astronomy section of the Great Exhibition of 1851 for the Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal, to which he also contributed articles on astronomy and meteorology. In meteorology he searched for a correlation between the weather conditions and cholera outbreaks in Southampton between 1848-1853 did not show any correlation, presenting these results to the British Association. He also travelled on the Continent, visiting Brussels Observatory and Basel. At Basel he met C. F. Schönfeld, who recruited him as a member of a network of observers to observe the atmospheric distribution of ozone. FRAS 1846; founder member of the (Royal) Meteorological Society (1850). Author of Practical Meteorological.(1855) and articles to Monthly Notices of the RAS and the journal of the Meteorological Society (ODNB, Obit., MNRAS, 18 (1858), 98).
Goodacre, Walter (1856-1938), born in Loughborough, a Schoolteacher who retired to Bournemouth soon after acquiring a 10-inch Cooke refracting telescope from James H. Worthington’s Four Marks Observatory (see Leicestershire; Obit., MNRAS, 99 (1939), 310-1; Stroobant 1931).
Hall, Basil (1788-1844) [Capt.], born Edinburgh, Scotland, he joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14, gaining his commission in 1808. He saw service both in China and South America exhibiting a talent for using instruments and the astronomy of navigation. He undertook experiments with the invariable pendulum and reported his observations of a comet to the Royal Society seen at Valpariso. Suffering from mental exhaustion he spent hs final years at the Haslar Naval Hospital at Gosport (Obit., MNRAS, 6 (1845) 155-9; Phillipps 2023).
Hallowes, G. P. Blackwood [FRAS] (1867-1931), born Penrith, Cumberland, was educated at King Williams College, IoM, pursuing a career a surveyor for the GPO. He was posted to York (1892-1902), Harrogate (1902-4), Dublin (1904-9) and Shrewsbury (1909-12). His keen interest in astronomy started at school using the college telescope to observe the Moon and later acquired increasingly larger reflectors. The last being a 12-inch Calver reflector acquired in 1915, having retired to nr. Bournemouth and then Dorset, due to ill-health. In addition to lunar work he was a keen variable star observer in the BAA (Obit., MNRAS, 92 (1932), p.255 ;Obit., JBAA, 42 (1932), p.111; Stroobant 1907, 76).
Howlett, Frederick [Rev.] (1821-1908), educated at Oxford for a career in the church, his first posting was to the Lake District, then Beckingham, Kent before taking the living of East Tisted Rectory, Alton, Hants. A solar observer using a 3 inch refracting telescope, he produced drawings over a 35 year period (Obit., MNRAS, 69 (1909), 247-8).
Kendall, Edward Nicholas [Lt.; FRAS] (1800-1845), educated at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, he joined the Royal Navy in 1814. Employed as a surveyor he was involved in various Arctic voyages, sailing with Sir John Franklin. In 1830 he was in southern waters making pendulum measurements and later in the Americas secretly surveying the boundary between the USA and New Brunswick, Canada. Later, he left government employment and worked both in Canada and Southampton (Phillipps 2023).
Knight, Henry Sollers Gunning Sparks [Lt. Col.] (c.1828-1904), a career soldier who retired to Harestock near Winchester where he devoted himself to his interests in meteorology and astronomy. In his back garden he erected a large earth thermometer and established an observatory, though its details are unclear. It is likely that he observed the planets as his only known publish records relate to Mars (Hamp Chronicle; Shurock 2020).
Knight, Henry Sollers Gunning Sparks
May, Charles (1800-1860), born Alton, and in childhood moved to Ampthill, Beds then Ipswich, Suffolk (see Suffolk; Barton 1999; Obit., MNRAS, 21 (1861), 101-2; Obit., ProcICE, 1861).
Markwick, Ernest Elliott (1853-1925), born in East Acton, Kent, an original member of the BAA, President 1912-14, Director BAA Variable Star Section 1899-1909. FRAS 1879. On his 21st birthday 19 July 1874 his parents gave him a 2 3/4-inch (8cm) refractor which remained a favourite instrument, later mounted on a Wray equatorial mount and tripod. He established Observatories at Devonport (1898-1903); Boscombe (1905-14)and lastly ‘The Beehive Observatory’ at his retirement home in West Moors, Dorset. His first recorded variable star observation was 1883, and regularly from 1888 until 1924. He was also a regular solar observer. “A very distinguished astronomer”, his Calver is on view at the Auckland Observatory, New Zealand (Kent; Shears 2012c).
Shrapnel, Henry (1761-1842) [Lieutenant-General; FRAS], born Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, Shrapnel joined the Royal Artillery receiving his commission in 1779. Serving in various theatre during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, he best known for the exploding shell that bears his name. He joined the Astronomical Society of London in 1826, retiring to his home, Peartree House, Southampton (ODNB; Phillipps 2023).
Strachan, William [FRAS] (c.1875-1935), born, Yokohama, Japan, but moved to Bournemouth, England due to ill-health and disability. An amateur astronomer who specialized in observing the sun and variable stars. With limited use of his left arm and hand, he commissioned a 9 inch (228mm) aperture Coudé refracting telescope by from Thos,. Cooke & Sons (Obit., JBAA, 45 (1935), p.289; Mobberley 2016).
Westlake, Thomas , Quaker, lived in Fordingbridge where he built an observatory and installed a 12-inch equatorial reflector.
Worthington, James H. [FRAS] (1884-1980), born Eccles, Lancashire, son of a wealthy textile manufacturer. After graduating from Wadham College, Oxford, followed by a world tour. This allowed him to pursue his avid interest in astronomy, during which he visited and observed at Flagstaff Observatory – elected FRAS 1908. This was followed by a series of eclipse expeditions and controversy as he was a believer in Lowell’s canals on Mars. By 1911 he had ordered a 20-inch Claver reflector and had purchased a secondhand 10-inch Cooke refractor for an observatory complex he planned at Four Marks in Medstaed, Hants – completed by 1913. After marriage to an american woman in 1918 he settled in California and made little use of his observatory – being dismantled by 1925. He spent the rest of his life in America (Mobberley 2018b).
Survey of Astronomical History 