Isis Pogson

Isis Pogson, FRAS (born Elizabeth Isis Pogson; 28 September 1852 – 14 May 1945),[1] was a British astronomer and meteorologist who was one of the first women to be elected as a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Isis Pogson

FRAS
Born
Elizabeth Isis Pogson

28 September 1852
Oxford, England
Died14 May 1945(1945-05-14) (aged 92)
Croydon, London, England
Other namesElizabeth Isis Kent
Known forAstronomy

Early life

Elizabeth Isis Pogson was born in Oxford, England, on 28 September 1852, the eldest[2] daughter of Norman Pogson by his first marriage to Elizabeth Jane Ambrose (died 1869).[1] Elizabeth Isis was probably named after the River Isis, the part of the River Thames that flows through Oxford.[3]

Assisting astronomer in India

Her father Norman Pogson was an assistant at Radcliffe Observatory and then at Hartwell Observatory. He discovered the asteroid 42 Isis on 23 May 1856,[3][4] for which he was awarded the Lalande Prize.[5] The asteroid was named by Professor Manuel John Johnson, director of the Radcliffe Observatory, presumably in honour of Pogson's daughter Isis; it could also have been a reference to the River Isis.[3]

When her father became director of the Madras Observatory in Madras, India, in October 1860, Isis travelled with him, her mother and two of her 10 siblings to his new post.[4][1] Her mother Elizabeth Pogson died in 1869, and her father relied upon Isis to look after the other children.[6] She also worked as her father's assistant whilst they lived in India.[5] She was given the post of computer at the Madras Observatory in 1873 with the salary of 150 rupees,[6][7] equivalent to a "cook or coach-man",[5] and worked there for 25 years until she retired with a pension of 250 rupees[6] in 1898, when the observatory closed. She served as the meteorological superintendent and reporter for the Madras government from 1881.[2][8][9]

Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society

Pogson was the first woman to attempt to be elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, being nominated (unsuccessfully) by her father and two other fellows in 1886.[5] Although the society had elected a few women as honorary members, all the fellows had been male up to this time. Her nomination was withdrawn when two lawyers deemed female fellows illegal under the provisions of the society's royal charter dating from 1831, which referred to fellows only as he.[10][11] Pogson (by then known by her married name Elizabeth Isis Kent) was successfully nominated in 1920 by Oxford professor H. H. Turner, five years after the Royal Astronomical Society first opened its doors to women.[6][12][13]

Personal

After retiring from astronomy, she married Herbert Clement Kent, a captain in the Merchant Navy,[6] on 17 August 1902 in Red Hill, Queensland, Australia.[2] The couple returned to England, living in Bournemouth and then London. Pogson died in Croydon on 14 May 1945.[6]

References
  1. Snedegar, Keith (2007). "Pogson, Norman Robert". In Hockey, Thomas; Trimble, Virginia; Williams, Thomas R. (eds.). Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Vol. 2. New York: Springer Publishing. pp. 1739–1741. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1107. ISBN 978-1-4419-9917-7.
  2. "Marriages: Kent–Pogson". The Queenslander. 23 August 1902. p. 400. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
  3. Schmadel, Lutz D. (2009). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer. p. 15. ISBN 978-3642019661.
  4. Reddy, V., Snedegar, K., & Balasubramanian, R. K. (2007). "Scaling the magnitude: The fall and rise of N. R. Pogson". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 117 (5): 237–245. Bibcode:2007JBAA..117..237R.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. Brück, Mary T. (2009). Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy: Stars and Satellites. Dordrecht: Springer. p. 157. Bibcode:2009webi.book.....B. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-2473-2. ISBN 978-90-481-2472-5.
  6. Hutchins, Roger (2004). "Pogson, Norman Robert (1829–1891)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57784. Retrieved 22 October 2012. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. Kidwell, Peggy Aldrich (September 1984). "Women Astronomers in Britain, 1780–1930". Isis. 75 (3): 534–546. doi:10.1086/353572. JSTOR 232943. S2CID 145224074.
  8. Black, Charles E.D. (1891). A memoir on the Indian Surveys, 1875–1890. p. 293.
  9. "A LADY METEOROLOGIST". Brisbane Courier. 23 August 1902. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
  10. Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey (1986). Women in science: antiquity through the nineteenth century: a biographical dictionary with annotated bibliography (3 ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262650380.
  11. Bailey, Mandy (2016). "Women and the RAS: 100 Years of Fellowship" (PDF). Astronomy & Geophysics. 57 (1): 19–21. Bibcode:2016A&G....57a1.19B. doi:10.1093/astrogeo/atw037. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  12. Fowler, A. (1920). "Annual General Meeting". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 80 (4): 336. Bibcode:1920MNRAS..80..335.. doi:10.1093/mnras/80.4.335.
  13. Dyson, F. W. (1920). "April 9, 1920". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 80 (6): 563. Bibcode:1920MNRAS..80..563.. doi:10.1093/mnras/80.6.563.
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