Francis John Welsh Whipple, 1876–1943

Abstract

Dr. Francis John Welsh Whipple, whose death at the age of 67 years occurred on September 25, 1943, was primarily a mathematician and as an undergraduate took a very high place in the Mathematical School at Cambridge. After a short period as mathematical master at one of Britain's best known public schools, where he himself had been trained as a boy, he entered the London Meteorological Office in 1912. For 13 years his work was mainly concerned with meteorological instruments and climatology; but on the retirement of Dr. Charles Chree, Whipple was appointed to succeed him as Superintendent of Kew Observatory, a position held by his father 50 years previously. Whipple was highly qualified for his new position: his scientific ability and knowledge were of the highest order, and he possessed, what is lacking in so many first‐rate scientists, interest in other people's work and readiness to devote his own time and thought to their problems. It is therefore not surprising that under his lead the scientific work at Kew Observatory was expanded and his staff of young men produced an outturn of scientific work which is memorable in the history of even such a celebrated Observatory as Kew.