Astronomical Society of the Pacific 277 Herbert Hall

ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE PACIFIC 277

HERBERT HALL TURNER, 1861-1930

By R. G. Aitken

Professor Herbert Hall Turner, who died on August 20, 1930, was known to astronomers and geophysicists the world over, not only as a leader in astronomical research and as "a singularly gifted expositor of the wonders of his science/' but as a most kindly and genial colleague and lovable man. He loved his fellow-men, and was always glad to co-operate with others, to help others, and to join in conferences and attend national and international meetings of astronomers and of those engaged in other lines of scientific research. His interest in geodesy and geophysics was only second to that in astronomy, and this led him, in August, to attend the meeting of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, at Stockholm, Sweden. "Jusl: before the afternoon meeting on Saturday, August 16, he fell forward on the table. His colleagues at first thought he had merely fainted, but the doctor who was called found that he had a severe attack of cerebral hemorrhage and had him removed to a hospital.Mrs. Turner and his daughter at once crossed to Stockholm by airplane but he never recovered consciousness. It will be recalled that the Astronomical Society of the Pa- cific awarded Professor Turner the Bruce Gold Medal in 1927 "for distinguished services to astronomy," and that, with Mrs. Turner, he came to California early in that year to receive the' medal in person and to deliver a course of lectures at the Uni- versity of California. Since the address of the President of our Society, giving a detailed statement of the distinguished services which led to the award, is printed in the February, 1927, number of these Publications, only a very general account of them will be given here. Second Wrangler at Trinity College, Cambridge, when only twenty-one years old, and second Smith's Prize man a year later, he entered upon his professional career under the most favorable auspices, and in' 1884 became chief assistant at the

© Astronomical Society of the Pacific · Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System I> CMl> , CM pj 278 PUBLICATIONS OF THE ω C OD-i S Royal Observatory, Greenwich.1 This position he held for nine years; then, in 1893, at the age of thirty-two, he succeeded Professor Pritchard as Savilian Professor of Astronomy and Director of the University Observatory at Oxford, the position he held at the time of his death. Thoroughly trained, possessing "a fertile and ingenious mind and more than the usual amount of courage in putting forward ideas and speculations," Professor Turner was also an indefatigable worker. The result was that the more than two hundred papers and essays he published give evidence of origi- nality, as well as of sound technical knowledge, and cover, in their subjects, a wide range. Not all of his ideas found ac- ceptance; that could hardly be expected of any leader. But many of them did, and his work in several lines has been of fundamental importance to astronomy. This is particularly true of his theoretical and practical contributions to the prob- lem of determining star places by measures of the star images on photographic plates. As a writer in the London Times says, "Much of the technique of the methods now universally em- ployed for deriving the positions of stars from photographs is due to him, and this is perhaps his greatest contribution to astronomy." But he also put his technique into practice, and the seven volumes containing the star places for the Oxford section of the Astrographic Catalogue, from + 24° to + 32°, were among the first to be completed. Appointed chairman of the Committee on the International Photographic Map of the Heavens at the first session of the International Astronomical Union, in 1922, Pro- fessor Turner devoted himself most energetically to helping some of the other observatories who were finding their share of the project a heavy burden. A number of volumes of the Cata- logue have appeared that, but for his aid and encouragement, would not have been completed. He devoted much time to the classification of variable stars and to assisting in securing publication of variable star obser- vations, and constantly urged the importance of the prompt

1 By clerical error, the date given in the February, 1927, number of the Publi- cations is 1889.

collection and publication of data in this field as in all others in which he worked. His active work in seismology began in 1913 when his friend Professor Milne, the seismologist, died. He took charge of Milne's seismological bureau and carried on the work of collecting data on earthquakes from all parts of the world. He repeatedly subjected earthquake records to harmonic analyses to discover possible correlations between earthquake frequency and astronomical and meteorological phenomena. The value of these researches was recognized by his colleagues and he became chairman of the section of seismology of the British Association and of the seismological committee of the International Geophysical Union. Throughout his career he was active in promoting popular interest in astronomy. A ready speaker, with a special gift for putting the results of technical research into language readily understood by the layman, he was always in demand as a lec- turer. His contributions to the London Times and other jour- nals were numerous and were always read with interest. He found time to write four books on astronomical subjects for the general reader—Modern Astronomy, Astronomical Dis- covery, The Great Star Map, and A Voyage in Space. His column in The Observatory, entitled "From an Oxford Note Book," filled as it was with reminiscences and personal experi- ences, kindly references to current work, and bits of verse both original and quoted, has delighted astronomers for a generation. Professor Turner's death means a sad loss to astronomy and to geophysics, but his colleagues will miss Turner the man, even more than Turner the scientist. He will be missed at the meetings of the Royal Astronomical Society, which, as Sir Frank Dyson writes, he attended with the greatest regularity. He served on the council for forty-three years, and had been secretary, president, and foreign secretary. "At the council meetings he invariably took a charitable view of a doubtful paper, and at the meetings never failed to compliment a young author on his research. At the dining club after the meetings he was secretary and Glaisher president, to the great satisfaction of the members, for many years. On Glaisher's resignation owing to failing health. Turner became president and continued to de-

cs) Astronomical Society of the Pacific · Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System 280 PUBLICATIONS OF THE

light and enliven the gathering by speech and occasionally by song." Though his work required him to spend long hours at his desk, he was by nature an outdoor man, a lover of the open air. He was never happier than when walking, riding on his bicycle, or boating, and few men had a more intimate knowledge of the country near Oxford than he. He loved music too, and was "an assiduous member of the Oxford Bach Choir and an active supporter of musical enterprises." He lived a useful, purposeful life, and was active to the last conscious hour. Greatly as we mourn his death, we cannot but find some solace in knowing that the end came to him when he was still engaged in work that he enjoyed.