Hugh Ernest Butler
FRSE
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...
MRIA FRAS (27 December 1916 – 10 May 1978) was a pioneering Welsh-born astronomer. Wartime work included important contributions to anti-aircraft gunnery followed in peacetime by major contributions to galactic and extragalactic research particularly via ballistic rockets. He promoted the idea of an orbiting space telescope as early as 1958.
Life
He was born on 27 December 1916 in
Llandaff
Llandaff (; ; from 'church' and ''River Taff, Taf'') is a district, Community (Wales), community and coterminous electoral ward in the north of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It was incorporated into the city in 1922. It is the seat of the Bisho ...
in
Glamorganshire
Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the south of Wales. Originally an early medieval petty kingdom of varying bo ...
in
Wales
Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
.
He was educated firstly at
Cardiff
Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
High School and then at
Whitgift School
Whitgift School is an independent day school with limited boarding in South Croydon, London. Along with Trinity School of John Whitgift and Old Palace School it is owned by the Whitgift Foundation, a charitable trust. The school was prev ...
in
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...
before being awarded a place at
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...
, winning a scholarship to read Mathematics.
In 1940 he received an Isaac Newton Studentship and commenced work on a PhD but the telescope on which he was working was dismantled as a result of the war and the academic work had to be put on hold.
In the same year he was asked to join
Prof Patrick Blackett to do operational research in anti-aircraft guns in Richmond, in relation to defending the country during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. He spent much of the war at various anti-aircraft installations around the country and while not engaged in work he was spending what time he could seeing one Gwendoline Harrison, a scholarship student who he had met at Cambridge when she was evacuated from London.
In 1946 he returned to Cambridge to be based at the
Cambridge Observatory as Senior Observer and was able to complete the observational work on his PhD In 1947 he transferred to
Dunsink Observatory
The Dunsink Observatory is an astronomical observatory established in 1785 in the townland of Dunsink in the outskirts of the city of Dublin, Ireland. Alexander Thom''Irish Almanac and Official Directory''7th ed., 1850 p. 258. Retrieved: 2011-0 ...
, part of the
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) () is a statutory independent research institute in Dublin, Ireland. It was established, under the Institute For Advanced Studies Act 1940, by the government of the then Taoiseach, Éamon de Vale ...
in Ireland, where he stayed until 1953.
At Dunsink he produced a number of papers concerning the photoelectric recording of stellar occultations
and stellar scintillation
, topics that led ultimately to the technologies that support the discovery of exoplanets and the construction of large ground-based optical telescopes respectively. He was also intensely practical and gained a significant reputation for the design and implementation of novel instruments. At Dunsink these skills were put to good effect in building it up as a modern observatory. He also took part in the commissioning of the Armagh-Dunsink-Harvard (ADH) Schmidt telescope
at
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein ( ; ), also known as Bloem, is the capital and the largest city of the Free State (province), Free State province in South Africa. It is often, and has been traditionally, referred to as the country's "judicial capital", alongsi ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
which produced much valuable early material for galactic and extragalactic research.
In 1953 he moved to
Edinburgh Observatory
The Royal Observatory, Edinburgh (ROE) is an astronomical institution located on Blackford Hill in Edinburgh. The site is owned by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The ROE comprises the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK& ...
where he continued for the rest of his life in the role of senior astronomer.
There he set up a large Hewitt-Schmidt Camera as an outpost observatory near Peebles. The 'Hewitt' was specifically designed for the observation and tracking of satellites and in October 1957 he and Dr. Vincent Reddish were jointly two of the first astronomers in the UK to observe the track of the Sputnik 1 satellite
.
At Edinburgh Dr. Butler turned his attention to the embryonic field of space research and as Head of the new Space Division he oversaw and contributed to the design and launch of a number of observational payloads mounted on ballistic rockets
.
Central to these were the
Skylark launchers
which were launched from Sardinia or from the Woomera Instrumented Range
.
He authored numerous articles for the press and was called upon to comment in print or on television on topics such as comets, satellites, eclipses and astronomy in general
. He was for instance the expert of choice when a large and fresh crater was discovered in Stornoway (he concluded that it was not, as had been suggested a meteorite).
As early as 1958 Dr Butler was promoting the idea of a large astronomical satellite (LAS) as part of his work with the British National Committee for Space Research (BNCSR) and he had a leading role in explaining the research that could be conducted from such a platform both to the scientific community
and to the public at large
.
He followed this up in 1963 by chairing a group that prepared a specification for the
European Space Research Organisation
The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was an international organisation founded by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space. It was founded in 1964. As an organisation ESRO was based on a ...
's first LAS. By the 1970s Dr. Butler was fully involved in European space research collaboration and in 1972 he edited a report on aspects of the ESRO Stabilised Satellite TD 1
.
He was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...
in 1959 and served as its Vice-President from 1967–69 and Curator from 1969 until his death.
He retired from the observatory in 1976 and moved to rural Peeblesshire though he retained access to the observatory's facilities.
His interests were wide-ranging and in his personal life he was fascinated by atmospheric phenomena and everything to do with wildlife and the natural world. He and Gwen were keen tennis and badminton players and Hugh applied his practical skills to a number of significant DIY construction projects. He was colourblind and presented a BBC radio programme on the subject in 1964.
He died at home in
Peeblesshire
Peeblesshire (), the County of Peebles or Tweeddale is a Counties of Scotland, historic county of Scotland. Its county town is Peebles, and it borders Midlothian to the north, Selkirkshire to the east, Dumfriesshire to the south, and Lanarkshire ...
suddenly on 10 May 1978.
Family
He married Gwen in 1943 and due to attitudes at the time, she was forced to choose between marriage and a teaching career and so in getting married she had to give up the career.
They were a devoted couple until Hugh Butler's death in 1978 and there was never the slightest suggestion that she regretted this choice. She never remarried and died in 2016 aged 97. Throughout those 38 years she spoke of him often. They had one son, John, born in 1953.
[verified by family]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Hugh Ernest
1916 births
1978 deaths
20th-century British astronomers
People associated with Edinburgh
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
People educated at Whitgift School
Academics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies