death_place death_date birth_place birth_date known_for article_title name
ottawa , ontario 23 april 1916 stowmarket , england 19 february 1854 surveyor and astronomer william frederick king
 william frederick king
william frederick king

william frederick king -lrb- february 19 , 1854 -- april 23 , 1916 -rrb- was a canadian surveyor , astronomer , and civil servant .
born in stowmarket , england , the son of william king and ellen archer , king emigrated to port hope , upper canada with his family when he was eight .
in 1869 , he started studying at the university of toronto .
he left in 1872 to work as a sub-assistant astronomer for the international boundary survey in western canada .
he returned to the university of toronto and received a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics in 1874 .
in 1875 , he was working as an assistant in the canadian survey of lands in the northwest .
after becoming a dominion land surveyor and dominion topographical surveyor in 1876 , he started working as an astronomical assistant for the federal department of the interior .
he became a permanent civil servant as inspector of surveys in 1881 , chief inspector in 1886 , and canada 's first chief astronomer in 1890 .
in 1905 , he was appointed founding director of the dominion observatory .
in 1908 , he was made a companion of the order of st michael and st george and a fellow of the royal society of canada .
he served as president of the royal society of canada from 1911 to 1912 .
in 1909 , he was made a fellow of the royal astronomical society of canada .
