Alexander Waddell

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 letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This so ...

(1789–1827) was an 18th/19th century Scot who oversaw customs and excise and was employed at the

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by ''Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

Customs House. He was also an amateur

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while th ...

and

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either o ...

Life

He was born at the Shore in Leith on 23 February 1789 the son of Alexander Waddell, a "tide surveyor" (d.1806). It is likely that Alexander studied Navigation and Mathematics at Trinity House in Leith. In 1806 (aged only 17) he appears in his own right in local street directories as an "inspector of yachts" living at Poplar Lane south of Leith Links. By 1810 he was in the same job but had moved to James Place in Leith. He was certainly in Leith during the construction of its new Customs House, designed by Robert Reid in 1810 and completed in 1812. He would have worked in this building from its first opening. By 1813 his job title changes to "inspector of cutters and boats" and it is clearer that he is in employment as a Government Customs Official. By 1820 he is living at Hermitage Hill. He built an observation tower nearby, which may have served as a small observatory. This was called Hermitage Tower. In 1823 he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 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 letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This s ...

. His proposer was

William Wallace Sir William Wallace ( gd, Uilleam Uallas, ; Norman French: ; 23 August 1305) was a Scottish knight who became one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence. Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace defeated an English army at ...

. His brother Andrew Waddell had been elected a Fellow in 1819. Alexander died at Hermitage Hill in Leith on 30 March 1827. Both Alexander and his brother died during the

cholera epidemic Seven cholera pandemics have occurred in the past 200 years, with the first pandemic originating in India in 1817. The seventh cholera pandemic is officially a current pandemic and has been ongoing since 1961, according to a World Health Organiz ...

which swept across the major cities at this time.

Family

He appears to be father to both Alexander Waddell (a customs officer in Leith in 1830) and Andrew Waddell

(who inherited his house at Hermitage Hill) and was also an amateur meteorologist. In 1867 both a James Waddell and Peter Waddell

are living at "Claremont Park" which was how Hermitage Hill was later known. Peter Waddell was also an astronomer and involved himself in lens design.Practical Holography by Graham Saxby

References

1789 births 1827 deaths People from Leith Amateur meteorologists Scottish meteorologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh {{UK-bio-stub