Reginald Cockcroft Sutcliffe FRS (16 November 1904 – 28 May 1991) was a British meteorologist. Born in Wrexham but raised in Yorkshire, where his father was a shop manager, he won a scholarship to the University of Leeds, where he gained first class honours in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. After studying for a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

with

William Berwick William Berwick may refer to: * William Edward Hodgson Berwick William Edward Hodgson Berwick (11 March 1888 in Dudley Hill, Bradford – 13 May 1944 in Bangor, Gwynedd) was a British mathematician, specializing in algebra, who worked on t ...

he joined the Meteorological Office in 1927. Sutcliffe first made a major impact with the publication in 1939 of his book ''Meteorology for Aviators'', which became essential reading for RAF pilots during the Second World War. During the beginning of the war he was posted to France with the BEF to make forecasts for flying operations over Europe, and with the final collapse was one of the last British servicemen to escape from France. Later in the war he worked for Bomber Command, playing an important role in forecasting for air raids over Germany. During and after the war, Sutcliffe also worked on the theory of meteorology, and his most important contribution was to use pressure instead of height as vertical co-ordinate in the atmosphere. Sutcliffe retired from the Met Office in 1965, but did not end his career. Noting the lack of university-level education in meteorology in the UK, he founded a new meteorological department at the University of Reading, offering Britain's first undergraduate course with meteorology as its principal subject. He retired from academic life in 1970, and died at Cadmore End in 1991.

Works

* ''Meteorology for aviators'', London : H.M.S.O, 1939 * ''Weather and climate'', London : Weidenfeld, Nicolson, 1966

Honours and awards

In 1955 he was awarded the

Symons Gold Medal The Symons Gold Medal is awarded biennially by the Royal Meteorological Society for distinguished work in the field of meteorological science. It was established in 1901 in memory of George James Symons, a notable British meteorologist. Recipients ...

of the

Royal Meteorological Society The Royal Meteorological Society is a long-established institution that promotes academic and public engagement in weather and climate science. Fellows of the Society must possess relevant qualifications, but Associate Fellows can be lay enthus ...

. He held many posts outside the Met Office, including serving as president of the

from 1955 to 1957, and the International Association for Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics from 1967 to 1971. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1957; a development which was widely seen as confirmation that meteorology had been accepted as a true science. He won the Chree medal and prize in 1959. In 1963 he was awarded the

International Meteorological Organization Prize The International Meteorological Organization Prize is awarded annually by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for outstanding contributions in the field of meteorology and, since 1971, the field of operational hydrology. The prize, estab ...

of the World Meteorological Organization.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutcliffe, Reginald Cockcroft 1904 births 1991 deaths Academics of the University of Reading Alumni of the University of Leeds British meteorologists Fellows of the Royal Society Presidents of the Royal Meteorological Society

Works

Honours and awards

Further reading

References