Sir Harold Spencer Jones, KBE (1890—1960)
Tenth Astronomer Royal from (1933—55)
Under Spencer Jones, the Observatory worked with the Post Office (GPO) to give
us the speaking clock, he also had a quartz crystal clock at Greenwich, and
moved the work, staff and equipment of the Observatory to Herstmonceux Castle in
Sussex.
A graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge, Spencer Jones began working at the Royal
Observatory Greenwich in 1913 as chief Assistant. In 1923 he left to become HM
Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope. In 1928 Spencer Jones was put in charge of
an international project initiated by the International Astronomical Union to
calculate the distance of the Sun from Earth using photographs of the minor
planet Eros, taken from 24 Observatories around the Earth. In the 1930s he again
worked on Eros and in 1941 announced an improved value of solar parallax. He
also worked on the colour and temperature of stars, and on the Earth's rotation,
publishing an important paper in 1939 showing the Earth's rotation was not
uniform.
During the Second World War Spencer Jones was appointed Assistant Director of
Inspection of Optical Supplies for the Ministry of Munitions. In 1946 it was
decided that the Observatory should be moved to Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex, a
move which took place over a number of years.
