The boy from Chesham who reached for the stars

His name was Charles Grover and he was born in Church Street, Chesham on March 7^th, 1842. His father John was a shoe maker. His mother Eliza died when Charles was approximately 2 months old, so Charles was brought up by his father’s mother. His father died when Charles was 8 years old, to be followed by the death of his grandmother Sarah when he was 12 years old.

Charles attended the British School in Chesham where he received a very basic education – reading, writing and the rudiments of arithmetic. One of the schoolmasters noticed his interest in drawing and allowed him to join the classes, then at the age of 12 (after the death of his grandmother) his family apprenticed him to a local brush-maker. This was Henry Rose who lived in Stratford’s Yard (now part of East Street). 

A fascination with the stars

It was in 1858, when he was 16 years old, that the appearance of Donati’s comet in the skies sparked his lifelong interest in astronomy, and after observing the stars with the naked eye for almost a year, he decided that he must have a telescope.

He managed to purchase an old ship’s telescope for 10/-d (50p), but by 1861 he decided that he needed a larger telescope, and since there was no hope of being able to afford to buy one on an apprentice’s wage, he set about successfully making his own.

This led to the actual purchase of a better telescope in 1862 (which was the year in which he married Elizabeth Birch) and the start of meticulous record keeping of his observations in a series of notebooks. This telescope needed assembling when it arrived and his technical skills were improved by this process. 

Before long, Charles was corresponding with other astronomers and notice was being taken of this young amateur astronomer and his observations. He began to receive invitations from well known astronomers to visit their observatories, and on a visit to Hartwell House in 1865, Dr John Lee looked through Charles’ notebooks and knowing something of his financial situation, made him a present of a large number of books and a sum of money. Dr Lee stated that he was very impressed with Charles’ record keeping.

With the help of his new friends in the astronomical world, Charles was able to purchase yet another telescope which once again needed to be assembled. It had one of the (then) newly invented silvered glass reflectors and with it, Charles’ observations of the night skies were considerably improved.

Charles says goodbye to Chesham

In 1869, Charles was presented with another gift which preceded a major change in his circumstances. This was parts which considerably improved the performance of his telescope and which came from a Mr John Browning who was so impressed with Charles that he offered him a post at his optical establishment in London. 

So at the age of 27, Charles, Elizabeth and their son George moved from Townsend Road, Chesham to Clapham. His place of work was 111 Minories, near Tower Hill and here he was responsible for the production and testing of telescopes and other optical instruments during the day, whilst spending his nights observing the skies. One of Browning’s products was magic lanterns and Charles became expert in operating these, doing so at meetings and lectures of a scientific nature, a service for which he was in great demand. 

At this time, there was a large number of wealthy individuals interested in astronomy who bought their own telescopes but did not possess the skills to set them up correctly, and Charles found himself in great demand travelling all over the country doing so. This led to him becoming acquainted with an even larger number of fellow astronomers with whom he regularly exchanged views and information. From 1870 to 1880 Charles also regularly attended the monthly meetings of the Royal Astronomical Society. 

An invitation to visit Australia

In June 1882, Charles was invited to join an expedition which was leaving England to travel to Australia and observe the Transit of Venus from near Brisbane. In the party was a young man called Cuthbert Peek who needed an astronomical assistant and Charles was asked if he would like the job. Charles agreed to take it, but little did he know then that Cuthbert Peek would remain his employer until Peek’s death in 1901. Charles was to be responsible for the packaging, transit and erection of all the astronomical equipment and the keeping of detailed records of not only astronomical observations, but meteorological observations as well. 

In her detailed biography of Charles Grover, Barbara Slater gives an extremely interesting description of the shipboard journey plus the difficult land travels which the group endured. The book is entitled “The Astronomer of Rousdon” and is well worth a read about this interesting man.

The expedition failed in its primary objective when the Australian skies remained cloudy for the duration of the transit and no observations of it could be made. All the equipment was packed up again and Charles accompanied it back to England and to Rousdon in Devon, where the Peek family had a country mansion. Cuthbert’s father, Sir Henry Peek, agreed to employ Charles on his son’s recommendation and so Charles travelled to the place where he would spend the rest of his life until his death in 1921.

Final years at Rousdon

So Charles, Elizabeth and George moved into the East Lodge at Rousdon in Devon in 1884. Twice daily from his arrival in Devon until shortly before his death, Charles meticulously made and recorded meteorological observations which were published annually until the death of Sir Cuthbert Peek in 1901.

In addition, he oversaw the building and equipping of the Rousdon observatory which began operating in 1885. In 1908, the Royal Astronomical Society honoured him with a special Dinner. Sir Cuthbert was succeeded by his son Sir Wilfred Peek who carried on employing Charles until the latter’s death in 1921 but sadly, after Charles’ death, the observatory at Rousdon fell into disuse and was demolished in the mid 20^th century.

My thanks to Keith Fletcher for telling me about this amazing man and lending me his biography.