| Name | Hudson, Thomas Charlton |
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| Place of work | Greenwich | ||
| Employment dates |
11/12 Feb 1892 – 10 July 1893 |
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| Observatory Posts | 1892, Feb |
Second Class Assistant | |
| Subsequent posts | 1893, Jul | Assistant, Nautical Almanac Office (The London Gazette (pdf)) |
|
| 1923 | Retired on medical grounds (see below) |
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| Born | 1868, Jun 10 | (Wimbledon) | |
| Died | 1937, May 19 | (Saffron Walden) |
|
| Known Addresses | 1892, Jun |
88 King George Street (MNRAS) |
|
| 1892, Dec |
3 Montpelier Row, Blackheath (MNRAS) |
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Hudson was the last of what turned out to be an elite group of individuals to be appointed as a Second Class Assistant, a grade that was created in 1871 and abolished in 1896. Following changes to the appointment process in 1872 all the posts at this level were filled by competitive examinations organised by the Civil Service. In total, just eight individuals were appointed under this system. All were well educated and generally in their early 20s when they arrived at the Observatory (Hudson like Bryant had a maths degree from Cambridge: Hudson was 17th Wrangler and Bryant 21st – ie the 17th and 21st best students in their year). They were:
1873 Arthur Matthew Weld Downing
1873 Edward Walter Maunder
1875 William Grasett Thackeray
1881 Thomas Lewis
1881 Henry Park Hollis
1891 Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin
1892 Walter William Bryant
1892 Thomas Charlton Hudson
Of the eight, six remained at the Observatory for their entire working life. Hudson wasn’t one of them. He and Bryant were appointed as a Second Class Assistants following the promotion of Lewis and Thackeray from Second Class to First Class Assistants. Bryant started on 8 February 1892 and Hudson a few days later Christie states 11 Feb in the introduction to the Greenwich Observations and 12 Feb in his report to the Board of Visitors. Turner gives the date as 12 February in the Chief Assistant’s Journal (RGO729/126). Hudson was given charge of the zenith distance reductions. He resigned his post on 10 July 1893 before he had completed his probationary period in order to take up the post of Assistant at the Nautical Almanac Office. The circumstances surrounding this move have not yet been researched
Hudson is recorded as being both a member of the British Astronomical Association and a fellow of the Royal Astronomcial Society (he and Bryant were both proposed as fellows by Christie in June 1892 and elected that December). Hudson was elected for a second time in 1898 (having been proposed by his boss the Superintendent of the Nautical Almanac Office, Arthur Downing, in December 1897), implying that he had either previously resigned or had not paid his subscription.
Donald Sadler, who joined the Nautical Almanac Office in 1930, described Hudson as ‘a brilliant but mentally unstable Assistant, who was responsible for many good (and some not so good) computing methods’ (RGO16/1). He was suspended from duty in November 1917 on the grounds that ‘his attendance to his Official duties and his demeanour towards his superior Officers was most improper’. He was later reinstated. In February 1923, he was medically certified ‘as being permanently incapable of discharging the duties of his situation, owing to mental instability. He was therefore relieved of his duties and recommended to the Treasury for the award of a superannuation allowance (RGO16/1). He was subsequently employed on a casual basis by the Nautical Almanac Office, his salary being drawn from the ‘lump sum’ (a pot of money from which all of the staff not on the establishment were paid).
By F.R. From Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 98, pp.251–2
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