Abstract
ON May 25, 1839, the distinguished meteorologist Sir John Eliot was born at Lamesley, Durham. Though the son of a schoolmaster, he did not matriculate until he was twenty-six years of age, and he then entered St. John's College, Cambridge. In 1869 he graduated as second wrangler and he was first Smith's Prizeman. After graduating he went to India and successively was professor of mathematics at Roorkee Engineering College (1869-72), at Muir College, Allahabad (1872-74), and professor of physical science at the Presidency College, Calcutta (1874-86). This last post he relinquished to succeed Henry Francis Blanford (1834-93) as meteorological reporter to the Indian Government. He had already served as reporter to the Government of Bengal. In 1899 he became director-general of Indian observatories, retiring from this post in 1903, being made K.C.I.E. He wrote largely on meteorological subjects, and his “Handbook of Cyclonic Storms in the Bay of Bengal” proved of great use to commerce and shipping. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1895, after his return to England in 1904 he was president of the sub-section of astronomy and cosmical physics of the British Association. He died suddenly at his estate at Var, in the south of France, on March 18, 1908.
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Sir John Eliot, K.C.I.E., F.R.S., 1839–1908. Nature 143, 847 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143847b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143847b0