Wednesday November 28, 1894

Meeting of Blue Coat Trustees at 5.30

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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RH says..... The Blue Coat charity was founded to provide schooling to poor children, who would wear the eponymous blue coats to school. The meeting that Christie attended probably related to the Greenwich Blue Coat School, now incorporated into the Blackheath Bluecoat School.

Wednesday November 14, 1894

Annual Meeting of Charity Organisation Soc^y in Octagon Room at 4.30. About 70 present. Very wet day, keeping many people away.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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RH says..... This clearly demonstrates how the Octagon Room - Flamsteed's Great Star Chamber - was so often used in the 19th century. 70 people seems a fair amount to fit into this room (these days public talks there are limited to 50-60) so it must have been a real squeeze at an event like this on a fine day. I can certainly vouch for the fact that a wet day in Greenwich Park keeps a large proportion of potential visitors to the ROG at home.

Friday July 20, 1894

Meeting of Boreman Governors at Greenwich at 1. Dinner & reception at Imperial Institute to commemorate 25^th anniversary of telegraphic communication to the far East.The astrographic micrometer taken away by M^r Simms for adaptation of a new millimetre scale, position circle & clamp to plate carrier, and focussing adjustment to microm. microscope.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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RH says..... Christie's meeting was of the charitable Boreman Foundation, named after Sir William Boreman who, in the 17th century, bequeathed a school in Greenwich and various to the Drapers' Company. The William Boreman Nautical School was absorbed into the Greenwich Hospital School in 1886 but the charity continued (and still continues) to provide scholarships and other financial assistance.

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The Imperial Institute, later the Commonwealth Institute, was founded in 1887 to carry out scientific research that supported agricultural, industrial and commercial development of the colonies and dominions. In 1894 the Institute had just moved into its new buildings in South Kensington. All that survives is Queen's Tower, now part of Imperial College.

Thursday July 19, 1894

Meeting of Jubilee Almshouses Trustees at 5.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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RH says..... With apologies for current delays in posting, due to illness and/or conferences.

Thursday February 1, 1894

Attended meeting of Jubilee Almshouses Trustees at 10.30

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

Rebekah Higgitt says.....
Christie's archives at Cambridge suggest that he was involved with a range of charitable work. This seems to have come with the job, as he replaced the previous Astronomer Royal, George Airy, as a Trustee of the Jubilee Almshouses in 1891. The Jubliee Almshouses were built in Greenwich in 1809 (the name celebrates George III's jubilee) and the Jubilee Trust Almshouses still exist.