Philip Eden Retires as Meteorological Section Secretary

When we heard from Thames Water about their plans for the observatory site which also houses the Meteorological Station we had tried in vain to contact the Hon. Meteorology Secretary Philip Eden, only to discover that he was in a nursing home suffering with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Simon Lang and Julie Atkinson visited Philip’s brothers and conveyed to them our sadness to learn such unwelcome news and to retrieve some Society reports etc.

Philip served as Meteorology Secretary for 33 years, taking over after the death of Robert Tyssen-Gee in 1983. When he began, readings were taken manually twice daily, but we converted to a fully automated system in 2000. Philip oversaw this transition and obtained grants to offset the expense of the computer controlled equipment. The fully automated system was made operational at a celebration on September 10th 2000. At our centenary celebrations on April 25th 2010, Philip received an award from the Met. Office for the Society’s record of 100 years of continuous meteorological readings from the same site. Philip also acted as editor of the Society History, and maintained the Met. Section web pages.

The Society was fortunate to have the services of a professional meteorologist in the Section for so many years. Philip presented the weather for BBC Radio 5 for many years, wrote a column for the Sunday Telegraph, authored several books on the weather and served a stint as Vice President of the Royal Meteorological Society.

It is indeed very sad to learn of Philip’s current condition and to be totally powerless to do anything about it.

oOo


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Last updated   14-Feb-2017