A June Wedding

RH says..... There is a long silence in the Chief Assistant's diary over summer 1894 as Frank Dyson was on his honeymoon. He married Caroline Bisset Best, better known as Carrie, on 20 June. It was to be a happy marriage, producing eight children - all of whom would later live in Flamsteed House when Frank became Astronomer Royal. In The Ninth Astronomer Royal, Dyson's daughter Margaret wrote: “Carrie was dressed in grey. She had two bridesmaids... The wedding was a quiet one, no guests having been invited except the two families and a few intimate friends.” The ceremony was performed by the groom's father, Rev Watson Dyson, at the Baptist Chapel in Carrie's home town, Louth, Lincolnshire.

The honeymoon was spent in Switzerland and "For a month Frank and Carrie walked and climbed", Carrie apparently impressing other guests with her prowess. In the evenings they read poetry aloud - apparently Frank was an admirer of Browning.

Preparing for Visitation Day

RH says..... Visitation Day was not only an inspection of the Observatory by the Board of Visitors, but it was also an open day for a large number of guests, including journalists (as this Times report for the 1898 Visitation shows), and required a lot of preparation.



Chief Assistant Frank Dyson was also preparing for his upcoming wedding and to move into a new home, and in her biography of Dyson, his daughter writes of this period: “With his new work at the Observatory and his private plans, Frank spent March, April, May and early June in a fever of excitement and activity. The first Saturday in June was the traditional Visitation Day..... There was a luncheon in the octagon room and a garden party afterwards. Lord Kelvin, as President of the Royal Society, was Chairman of the Board of Visitors in 1894. At any ordinary time Dyson would have been thrilled at the opportunity of talking to this famous scientist and of meeting so many other eminent men. But his mind was in such a whirl between stars and carpets, telescopes and mahogany furniture, that his first Visitation Day (which should have been a red-letter day) passed by almost unnoticed.” - although we'll shortly see from Frank's journal that the day certainly did not go unrecorded.

Christie on the Census

RH says..... While there is a break in the journals, I have been trying to get an idea of Christie's domestic life at the ROG. He married Violette Mary, daughter of the iron manufacturer and MP Sir Alfred Hickman, shortly after becoming Astronomer Royal in 1881, but she died in 1888. They had two sons: the younger one died in childhood but the elder, who became a barrister, lived with his father. However, he is not included on the census records for 1891 or 1901, perhaps being away at school.

The 1881 census shows Christie - still Chief Assistant and still a bachelor - living at 12 Royal Parade in Blackheath with his siblings Faraday H. Christie (29) and Mary M.E. Christie (27), both described as artists and painters. By 1891 Christie would have been well established in Flamsteed House, but must have been away on the day the census was taken as the only residents listed are Annie Dean (24), housemaid, and Mary Ann Copin (27), cook. He was at home in 1901, this time with two different female servants - Eliza Levey (31), cook, and Jessie Gillingham (25), housemaid - but still no son. It was a very different home life to that of his predecessor George Airy, who in the 1851 census is listed as living in Flamsteed House with 12 other individuals - his wife, six of his children, four staff and his sister. A tight squeeze!