Thursday April 19, 1894

Dined at Fishmongers Company to meet Archbishop of Canterbury. Returned thanks for learned Societies.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

RH says..... The Fishmonger's Company is one of the oldest of London's City Guilds, with its Hall near London Bridge. Christie was evidently there in formal capacity - a representative of science and learning - but also for social reasons. The Archbishop of Canterbury at this date was Edward White Benson, who was known as a public school headmaster before his church career took off.

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!

Friday April 13, 1894

R.A.S. Council

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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RH says..... A report of this RAS Council Meeting can be found online here. It's from The Observatory, a journal founded by Christie back in 1877. Christie does not seem to have taken an active part in this meeting and, in fact, the ROG's input seems to have been limited to the submission of a paper on 'Observations of Denning's Comet' and the election of 'F.W. Dyson, M.A., Fellow of Trin. Coll., Camb., Royal Observatory, Greenwich, S.E.'.

Tuesday April 10 and Wednesday April 11, 1894

L., A.C., & myself searched for Comet Holmes. Telegrams came from Kiel & Edinburgh saying that they had searched in vain.

Frank Dyson, Chief Assistant

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RH says..... Comet Holmes had been discovered in 1892 by Edwin Holmes, a British amateur astronomer. It was confirmed by, among others, E.W. Maunder at the ROG. The telegrams came from Kiel Observatory and the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh: the mention of the latter is timely for me as I have just been at a conference in the ROE focusing on the magnificent Crawford Library. The current building on Blackford Hill was not completed by 1894, and the ROE would still have been based on Carlton Hill in the centre of the city.

Friday April 6, 1894

M^r Sewith from Controller’s Depart^t inspected electric light installation. M^r E.E. Putland from Messrs Johnson & Phillips was present.Received model of proposed 26ⁱⁿ Photo-telescope from Sir H. Grubb.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

RH says..... The Controller's Department was part of the Admiralty, which administered the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. They were evidently required to check all work done on the Admiralty's budget. The firm of Johnson & Phillips, as you will see if you click on the link above, still exists, although now based in Pakistan. The firm supplied and laid cable for Trans-Atlanic communication, as you will see from this site - which also includes biographies of the firm's founding partners.

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The accompanying image shows the completed 26-inch telescope, alongside the 30-inch that Sir Henry Thompson also donated. They were mounted together in the dome of the New Physical Observatory in 1897.

Thursday April 5, 1894

Went to Adm^y but after waiting some time could not see M^r Awdry. Savile Club election.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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RH says..... Two rather contradictory indications of the Astronomer Royal's status: the Assistant Secretary to the Admiralty was too busy to see him, but he was being invited again into the heart of fashionable Mayfair. His need to speak to Awdry was undoubtedly related to his plans for staff reorganisation or building works.

Tuesday April 3, 1894

M^r Cass brought down a letter from Account. Gen. instructing me to draw the cheques. I replied next morning to Sec^y of Adm^y pointing out that this was not within my duties.The Crown lens of 28ⁱⁿ O.G. (Photogr. Posⁿ) was brought nearer to flint lens by taking off the separating ring 0.4ⁱⁿ thick on face of flint cell.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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RH says..... The financial issues highlighted in the previous post were clearly not solved. To confuse the issue, the Astronomer Royal was a Crown appointment, meaning that although the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, was answerable to the Admiralty, Christie, in theory, was not. The terms of his Royal Warrant, unsurprisingly, said nothing about drawing cheques.

Monday April 2, 1894

M^r C. Cass from the Admiralty (Account. Gen’s Depart^t) came to take over temporarily M^r Le Brun’s duties. M^r Dyson (to whom M^r Criswick had handed over the cash balance placed in his hands by M^r Le Brun on March 20) transferred the cash balance (which I counted over) to M^r Cass.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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M^r Cass took charge of the accounts.

Frank Dyson, Chief Assistant

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RH says..... Now we know why Criswick forgot to draw the cheques to pay the computers: this was not normally part of his job. Since Le Brun left, there had been no clerk at the Observatory - although before his arrival in 1893 there had been an even longer hiatus. Clerks and financial responsibility had been a bit of a sore point since 1892, when W.J. Wickison, a clerical assistant at the ROG since 1887, stole £188 and was dismissed. The Admiralty's correspondence at the National Archives records that "there is no doubt that Mr Christie’s superintendence was lax in the extreme", but also that, perhaps rightly, "his scientific duties required his more particular attention" and that he should therefore be provided with proper support in the form of an ex-Admiralty "Retired Assistant Paymaster". As a stop-gap, Le Brun and Cass were loaned out to the ROG while the Admiralty thrashed out "the broader question [of] whether the Observatory and its cost might not very fairly be transferred to the Treasury and to the Civil Service Estimates".