Henry Raper (c. 1799 – 6 January 1859) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Royal Naval

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

who became a nineteenth-century authority on

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navig ...

. Amongst his achievements was his quantification of the unreliability of a key

longitudinal Longitudinal is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Longitude ** Line of longitude, also called a meridian * Longitudinal engine, an internal combustion engine in which the crankshaft is oriented along the long axis of the vehicle, ...

measurement,

lunar distance The instantaneous Earth–Moon distance, or distance to the Moon, is the distance from the center of Earth to the center of the Moon. In contrast, the Lunar distance (LD or \Delta_), or Earth–Moon characteristic distance, is a unit of measure ...

, when taken at different times. One early beneficiary of Raper's research was

Robert FitzRoy Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy (5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) was an English officer of the Royal Navy, politician and scientist who served as the second governor of New Zealand between 1843 and 1845. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of ...

, whose second expedition was made famous by the work of his travelling companion,

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

. Raper is primarily remembered, however, for his seminal work ''The Practice of Navigation and Nautical Astronomy'', for which he was awarded the

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of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

in 1841. According to his memorial at St Peter & St Paul's Church, in

Dinton, Buckinghamshire Dinton is a village in Buckinghamshire, England, within the Buckinghamshire Council unitary authorities in England, unitary authority area. It is in the south of the Aylesbury Vale on the ancient Turnpike trusts, turnpike leading from Aylesbury ...

, it was "a work universally adopted by the naval service". Raper died on 6 January 1859 at

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

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. His father was admiral Henry Raper.

Bibliography

* Henry Raper, ''The Practice of Navigation and Nautical Astronomy'' (Third edition published by Bate, 1849) 1790s births 1859 deaths History of navigation Royal Navy officers {{UK-navy-bio-stub

See also

Bibliography