page_title: Alexander Ross Clarke
section_title: Retirement and legacy 1881–1914
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Ross Clarke / Biographical details / Retirement and legacy 1881–1914
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Alexander Ross Clarke with daughters
context_page_description: Col Alexander Ross Clarke FRS FRSE was a British geodesist, primarily remembered for his calculation of the Principal Triangulation of Britain, the calculation of the Figure of the Earth and one of the most important text books of Geodesy. He was an officer of the Royal Engineers employed on the Ordnance Survey.
context_section_description: Superintendent James retired in 1875 and he was succeeded by his deputy, Colonel John Cameron. He died suddenly in 1878 and after his death Clarke was made acting head of the Survey until the appointment of Colonel Anthony C. Cooke. It was surprising that Clarke himself was not appointed. Three years later the War Office intervened in his career once again; "an official of a well-known type woke up to the fact that he had been at a home station (i.e. the Survey at Southampton) for twenty-seven years, and he was ordered to go to Mauritius" (Close 1943).  Clarke, a man of some-what hasty temper (Close), strongly resented this summary order which involved such a complete break with his life's work and he promptly sent in his resignation from the Army. Despite protestations to the War Office from the scientific establishment, Clarke's resignation was allowed to stand.  "Clarke's retirement was a veritable disaster for the Survey, and his departure lowered the whole tone and scientific status of the department for many a long year." (Close 1925).
  From 1881 Clarke's involvement with geodesy becomes more and more tenuous. In October 1883 he and Airy were the British delegates at the International Geodetic Conference in Rome, and in 1884 he represented Britain at the International Meridian Conference. Thereafter he published no further work on the subject apart from his revision, with Helmert, of his Encyclopædia Britannica articles. His fame was not diminished in any way: he was made an honorary Fellow of both the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1892) and the Royal Astronomical Society. His most prestigious award was the Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1887. The text of the citation is as follows:
  "The medal which, in accordance with the usual rule has been devoted to mathematics and physics, has this year been awarded to Colonel A. Clarke for his comparison of standards of length, and determination of the figure of the earth. Col. Clarke was for some 25 years the scientific and mathematical adviser for the Ordnance Survey, and while acting in that capacity he became known to the whole scientific world as possessing unique knowledge and power in dealing with the complex questions which arise in the science of geodesy. His laborious comparison of the standards of length, carried out under General Sir Henry James, R.E., are universally regarded as models of scientific precision. His determination of the ellipticity and dimensions of the earth from the great arcs of meridian and longitude involved a very high mathematical ability and an enormous amount of labour. The conclusion at which he arrived removed an apparent discrepancy between the results of pendulum experiments and those derived from geodesy, and is generally accepted as the best approximation hitherto attained as to the figure of the earth."
   
  On retirement Clarke moved to Reigate with his wife and several unmarried daughters. His wife died in 1888. With only his army pension to support the family he was in straitened circumstances and he was forced to cancel his subscriptions to London clubs and the learned societies. These included his membership of the Royal Society but, in 1888, he was honoured by re-admission without fees. His son recounts that he even sold his Royal Medal, for forty pounds, but gave half away to charity. Although Clarke disengaged from the study of geodesy he was clearly mentally active until a very good age. The accounts by Close mention microscopy, the four colour problem, music and, above all, religion.
  Alexander Ross Clarke died on 11 February 1914 in Reigate. There is a brief obituary in the Times (1914) but the Royal Society obituary and the Nature obituary are more comprehensive. For many years he was the most prominent geodesist in Britain.
caption: Clarke with daughters
exif: {}