Henry Francis Blanford
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Henry Francis Blanford (sometimes spelt Blandford) (3 June 1834 – 23 January 1893) was a British
meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...
and
palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
who worked in India. He was a younger brother of the naturalist
William Thomas Blanford William Thomas Blanford (7 October 183223 June 1905) was an English geologist and naturalist. He is best remembered as the editor of a major series on '' The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma''. Biography Blanford was born ...
, both of whom joined the Geological Survey of India in 1855. Henry was the first official meteorologist in India, appointed as Imperial Meteorological Reporter in 1875. Henry was born at 27 Bouverie street, Whitefriars, London where his father ran a workshop for gilt mouldings. His early schooling was at Brighton and Brussels. For a while he studied design at Somerset House and Marlborough House before joining the
Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...
, South Kensington in 1851 and studied under
Henry De la Beche Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche KCB, FRS (10 February 179613 April 1855) was an English geologist and palaeontologist, the first director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, who helped pioneer early geological survey methods. He was the ...
,
Warington Wilkinson Smyth Sir Warington Wilkinson Smyth (26 August 181719 June 1890) was a British geologist. Biography Smyth was born at Naples, the son of Admiral W H Smyth and his wife Annarella Warington. His father was engaged in the Admiralty Survey of ...
and John Percy. He was the recipient of a scholarship from the Duke of Cornwall. He then studied for a year at the Bergakademie Freiberg (Mining Academy of Freiberg). Henry and his brother William joined the
Geological Survey of India The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is a scientific agency of India. It was founded in 1851, as a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Mines, one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey ...
in 1855 and his first work was to study the coal deposits of Talcher, Orissa (now
Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
). At Talcher he found evidence for the effect of ice in the formation of a boulder bed. From 1856 he was a curator of the Museum of Geology at Calcutta. He was also a delivering lectures at the Presidency College in
Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
on geology during winters. In 1857 he went to study Cretaceous beds in Tiruchinapalli and near Pondicherry. In 1861, poor health forced him to resign and leave for Europe. He returned the next year to join as a professor of physics and chemistry at the Presidency College, a position that he kept till 1872. His interest in meteorology grew after his appointment as professor of science at the Presidency College from 1862 to 1874. In 1864,
cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...
s hit eastern India, killing 70,000 and damaging the port of Calcutta. Blanford co-wrote a report on the subject and was subsequently appointed secretary of the commission created to establish a system of storm warnings to protect Calcutta's harbour. Blanford was appointed Imperial Meteorological Reporter and placed in charge of the Bengal Province Meteorological Department, which covered Calcutta, in 1867. The regionalised nature of these local organisations was soon found to be a problem, and in 1875, the India Meteorological Department was founded, with Blanford in charge. The department would gather data across the country, analyse and disseminate information. He initiated publication of the department's scientific results (''Report of the Meteorological Reporter'') and made long-term weather forecasts using the link between the nature of snow in the
Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
and rainfall in the rest of India. Using this method, he was able to predict a deficient monsoon in 1885. Blanford's prediction of drought was noticed by the Australian meteorologist Charles Todd and when another drought occurred in 1888, he realised that there was a synchrony in the events. This was examined later by
Gilbert Walker Gilbert Walker may refer to: * Gilbert Walker (cricketer) (1888–1952), English cricketer *Gilbert Walker (physicist) (1868–1958), English physicist *Gilbert Carlton Walker Gilbert Carlton Walker (August 1, 1833 – May 11, 1885) was a Unit ...
who recognised the global scale of weather phenomena. He was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1862,
Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
in 1880 and was a president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1884–85. On 20 June 1867, Henry married Charlotte Mackenzie, daughter of George Ferguson Cockburn of the Bengal civil service and granddaughter of Lord Justice Cockburn. They had three daughters and a son. Poor health forced him to return to England and he died of cancer at
Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...
, Kent in 1893. He was buried in a family vault on the western side of
Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
.


Publications

* Indian Meteorologist's ''Vade Mecum'' (1876) * Climates and Weather of India (1889)


References


External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20070225073352/http://www.nahste.ac.uk/isaar/GB_0237_NAHSTE_P0996.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Blanford, Henry Francis 1834 births 1893 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery People from the City of London British meteorologists British naturalists Fellows of the Royal Society Presidents of The Asiatic Society British people in colonial India