Robert Cockburn Mossman

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". ...

(1870–1940) was a British meteorologist and polar explorer who served on the Scottish Antarctic Expedition of 1903/4. He lived at 10 Blackett Place, Edinburgh. See 1881 census.

Life

He was born on 7 November 1870 to James Mossman, an

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

merchant. The family lived at 10 Panmure Place. Robert was educated at the Royal High School. An early encounter with Alexander Buchan brought about a lifelong interest in meteorology and he began taking private measurements and compiling complex records in 1886 aged only 16. Although only an amateur he impressed the Edinburgh scientific world sufficiently such that in 1891 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 ...

. Aged only 20 he was one of the youngest ever Fellows. His proposers were Sir John Murray, Alexander Buchan, John McLaren, Lord McLaren and

Hugh Robert Mill Hugh Robert Mill (28 May 1861 – 5 April 1950) was a British geographer and meteorologist who was influential in the reform of geography teaching, and in the development of meteorology as a science. He was President of the Royal Meteorologica ...

. He was awarded the Society's

Keith Prize The Keith Medal was a prize awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy, for a scientific paper published in the society's scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery, either in mathem ...

for the period 1915–17. Despite lacking formal training he was a keen amateur meteorologist and was chosen to man the

Glen Coe Glen Coe ( ) is a glen of glacial origins, that cuts though volcanic rocks in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. It lies in the north of the shires of Scotland, county of Argyll, close to the border with the history of local governm ...

Weather Station at the foot of

Ben Nevis Ben Nevis ( ; , ) is the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the British Isles. Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Highland region of Lochaber, close to the town of Fort William. The mount ...

in 1895/6. In 1902 he was chosen to join the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition under William Spiers Bruce on board the

Scotia Scotia is a Latin placename derived from ''Scoti'', a Latin name for the Gaels, first attested in the late 3rd century.Duffy, Seán. ''Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia''. Routledge, 2005. p. 698. The Romans referred to Ireland as "Scotia" aro ...

alongside the geologist Dr

Harvey Pirie Dr James Hunter Harvey Pirie FRSE FRCPE (10 December 1878 – 27 September 1965"Dr. J.H. Harvey Pirie" in ''The London Philatelist'', Vol. 74, No. 876, December 1965, p. 223.) was a 20th-century British medical doctor, philatelist, orchid-grow ...

. Mossman was asked to man a newly built weather station on

Laurie Island Laurie Island is the second largest of the South Orkney Islands. The island is claimed by both Argentina as part of Argentine Antarctica, and by the United Kingdom as part of the British Antarctic Territory. Under the Antarctic Treaty System a ...

on the

South Orkneys The South Orkney Islands are a group of islands in the Southern Ocean, about north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula Robert Traill Omond Robert Traill Omond FRSE LLD SMS (1858–1914) was a British physicist, geologist and meteorologist who set up the Ben Nevis Observatory. Life He was born on 5 June 1858, the son of Mary Eliza Traill, daughter of Thomas Stewart Traill, and Rob ...

. However, the British government declined to accept and maintain the station and it was instead passed to the government of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. Three Argentine meteorologists were collected and delivered to serve under Mossman in February 1904. They remained under his charge until February 1905 when Mossman left them to run the station without him. He then joined the Argentine boat ''Uruguay'' going to the

Gerlache Strait Gerlache Strait or de Gerlache Strait or Détroit de la Belgica is a Channel (geography), channel/strait separating the Palmer Archipelago from the Antarctic Peninsula. The Belgian Antarctic Expedition, under Lt. Adrien de Gerlache, explored the ...

Graham Land Graham Land is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula that lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee ...

in search of Dr Charcot's ongoing expedition. After a three-year trip he briefly returned to Britain in 1905 before joining a further expedition, this time to the Arctic regions of

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

and

Spitzbergen Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it lies about midway between the northern coast o ...

1906/7. In 1905 the Royal Scottish Geographical Society awarded him their gold medal. He emigrated to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

and joined the staff of the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

Meteorological Office (including the men he had previously worked with). He died in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

on 14 July 1940.

Publications

*''Meteorological Phenomena in London with Different Winds 1763-1897'' (1898) *''The Height of the Barometer in London'' (1899) *''Reporting on the Meteorology of Scotland'' (1899) *''Meteorological Observations taken in Edinburgh'' (1900) *''The Voyage of the Scotia'' (1907) *''The Climate of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil'' (1919) *''Southern Hemisphere Seasonal Correlations''

Family

In 1907 he married Sarah W. Limont, daughter of Rev W, Limont of

Alnwick Alnwick ( ) is a market town in Northumberland, England, of which it is the traditional county town. The population at the 2011 Census was 8,116. The town is south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish border, inland from the North Sea ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mossman, Robert Cockburn 1870 births 1940 deaths Scientists from Edinburgh Scottish meteorologists Scottish polar explorers Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh Scottish emigrants to Argentina