Sir Richard van der Riet Woolley (1906—86)
Eleventh Astronomer Royal (1956—71)
Born 24 April 1906
Died 24 December 1986
![[Portrait]](../../../images/books/woolley.gif)
Educated
Universities of Cape Town (MSc) and Cambridge (BA 1928, PhD 1931, ScD 1951). OBE
1953, Kt cr 1963. Commonwealth Fund Fellowship, Mt Wilson Observatory,
California 1929-31, Isaac Newton Student, Cambridge 1931-33, Chief Assistant,
Royal Observatory, Greenwich 1933-37, John Couch Adams Astronomer, University of
Cambridge 1937-39, director, Mount Stromlo Observatory 1939-55, professor of
astronomy, Australian National University 1950-55, Astronomer Royal, UK 1956-71,
first Director, South African Astronomical Observatory 1972-76. President, Royal
Astronomical Society 1963-65, President, ANZAAS 1955. Fellow of the Royal
Society 1953, Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science 1954, Gold
Medal, Royal Astronomical Society 1971.
Woolley was the last Astronomer Royal to be Director of the Observatory. Born
in Dorset, he studied at both Cape Town University and Cambridge. In 1929 he
began work at Mount Wilson Observatory in California leaving in 1931 to return
to Cambridge.
On 1 January 1955 Woolley took office as the eleventh Astronomer Royal. Because of the changes that followed his retirement it is hard for the present
generation to appreciate the former prestige, in the eyes of the people of
Britain, of the Astronomer Royal as the custodian at Greenwich of the most
famous observatory in the world which was also by far their most senior national
scientific institution. It was all a peculiarly British phenomenon. But it was
good for British science, and British astronomy in particular. Young astronomers
were proud of 'working with the Astronomer Royal'; foreign astronomers found the
phenomenon intriguing. Woolley worthily upheld the formidable tradition to which
he was heir, and of which the most important part had always been, with the best
techniques of the time, to direct the Observatory to the scientific requirements
of the time. In his career as a whole, Woolley played main parts in leading
great extensions of optical astronomy in three of the world's continents.
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