10 - The opinion moulder

Summary

Continued dealings with the Cape

David Gill, tremendous enthusiast that he was, never ceased to complain that his Observatory at the Cape was inadequately funded. The Cape Observatory, like the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, operated under the British Admiralty. In practice this meant that Gill was not independent of the Astronomer Royal in Greenwich: to quote Brian Warner, historian of the Cape Observatory, ‘from 1887 [when financial support for his Cape Catalogue was halted] until his retirement Gill had continually to fight the effects of Christie's hostility to almost every proposal that emanated from the Cape.’ He kept the catalogue going from that date onwards by contributing half of his own salary to it.

In 1892 Gill declined to be considered for the Chair at Cambridge, which went to his friend Sir Robert Ball from Dublin, insisting that he could do more for astronomy by staying at the Cape. Only a year later, however, in 1893, he was despondent, and Agnes Clerke took upon herself to alert him to a possible opening at home, following the death of Charles Pritchard, Savilian Professor at Oxford. ‘You will be surprised at my telegraphing you about the Savilian Professorship’ she wrote in a follow-up letter, ‘but it seemed to me so important under the circumstances that you knew the appointment is still open that I risked incurring the blame of officiousness.