who was sir gilbert walker?

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Who was Sir Gilbert Walker?Who was Sir Gilbert Walker?

Hadley Centre for Climate ChangeMet Office

Fitzroy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB

Dr Rob Allan


Sir Gilbert Thomas Walker 1868-1958


Family BackgroundFamily Background

Gilbert Thomas Walker, 4th child of Thomas Walker & Charlotte Haslehurst,was born at Rochdale, Lancashire on 14 June 1868

Gilbert Walker’s ancestors were farmers, agricultural labourers & millers in the same part of Derbyshire since the 1600s

Gilbert’s father, Thomas, was • a mechanical engineer • Borough Surveyor for Rochdale• Chief Borough Engineer &

Surveyor, Croydon Board of Health

and pioneered using concrete in dam construction


School DaysSchool Days

St Paul’s School, West Kensington, July 1886

My dear High Master,As Walker is now leaving school for the University, this is the last time that

it will be my duty to report to you on his progress and on the quality of his work. Throughout the time that he has spent with me his work has been so uniformly good, and he has been so persistent and untiring in his devotion to it, that I can scarcely speak too highly of him. It is a matter for special regret that his illness during the examination should have taken from him his last and best opportunity at school of displaying fully his mathematical knowledge and power. I have never parted from any of my boys with more respect and confidence than I now do for him and I hope that his health will allow his career at the University to be a harmonious continuation of his career at St Paul’s. I am very faithfully yours,

C. Pendlebury

Charles Pendlebury, writer of school arithmetic texts, was senior mathematics master at St Paul’s School

1876-1881: Whitgift School, South Croydon1881-1886: St Paul’s School, West Kensington


Trinity College, CambridgeTrinity College, Cambridge

Gilbert entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1884

1885-1893: prizes in mathematics and dynamics (paper on gyroscopes)

1891: elected a Fellow of Trinity

1891-1893: winters in Switzerland (due to health problems) increased his passions for ice skating & climbing

1895-1901: Mathematics lectureship

1899/1900: awarded the Adams Prize (paper on electromagnetic fields)

During his time at Cambridge, Gilbert developed an interest in projectiles, ball games, spinning tops, flight & throwing sticks – especially boomerangs, which he threw on The Backs at Trinity College. He earned the nickname Boomerang Walker.

Dr Hugh Hunt, Senior Lecturer, Dept of Engineering, Trinity College, throwing boomerangs on The Backs at Trinity College


A New DirectionA New Direction

His predecessor, John Eliot, had found a successor with strong statistical/mathematical qualifications who could assess the various links and relationships with Indian monsoon rainfall that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had found.

In preparing for his new post, Gilbert visited meteorological services and offices in the UK, USA, France and Germany during 1902-1903.

Gilbert Walker had no training in meteorology or climatology when he was appointed Director General of Observatories in India, based in Simla, on 1 January 1904.

Sir Gilbert Thomas Walker,

3rd British Director (Director General of

Observatories) 1904-1924


Early Years at the IMD

• There was little scientific basis for seasonal forecasting

• Walker aimed to collect all of the data available and treat it statistically without attempting to trace physical connections between cause and effect (Taylor, 1962)

• Three assistants (Field, Patterson & Simpson – later directors of meteorological services in India, Canada & Britain)

• Given the nature and extent of the Indian monsoon, Walker had to examine statistical connections (correlations) of global extent and with time delays (i.e. leads and lags)

• Early stability and workable staff numbers suffered with the departure of Dr Simpson on Scott’s Polar Expedition in 1910, the resignation of Mr Patterson, and illness among the other officers

• With the Great War draining the European staff from the IMD routine work was with difficulty kept up to date and research work became impossible (Meteorological Office, India, 1925)


Distribution of stations that display varying associations with atmospheric pressure fluctuations in India and at Cordoba in South America (after Lockyer and Lockyer, 1904)

Walker’s first forecast of Indian monsoon rainfall in 1909, using a regression equation

All-India Monsoon Rainfall = -0.2 [Himalayan snowfall accumulation] -0.29 [Mauritius

pressure] +0.28 [mean of South American pressure] -0.12 [Zanzibar rainfall]

• Pioneered statistical forecasting - formed a ’human computer’ with Indian staff performing a mass of statistical correlations using data from around the world

• Set up the network of upper air observatories across India

• Expanded and improved meteorological services for shipping

• Improved the solar observatory at Kodiakanal (under Jack Evershed)

• Set up an experimental meteorological laboratory and workshop

Achievements as Head of the IMD


Walker in Simla

At Simla, Gilbert Walker found the perfect environment in which to develop and enjoy his wider interests

• bird flight & aerodynamics (gliding)

• throwing boomerangs on the playing fields at Annandale

• climbing and walking

• painting (Simla Art Exhibition)

• ice skating

• flute playing (theory, practise & evolution)

Playing fields at Annandale, Simla


Imperial College and OscillationsImperial College and Oscillations

• After completing his tenure in India in December 1923, Walker was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in September 1924, a post he held until he retired in 1934

• A series of papers authored by Gilbert Walker and Edward Bliss on global climatic fluctuations presented the scientific findings for which he is most remembered

• This research was made possible by the masses of worldwide correlations produced by his ‘human calculator’ during his time in India, and his pioneering work on the criteria for statistical significance

• In a paper on world weather correlations in 1924, Walker first introduced the terms Southern Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, and North Pacific Oscillation


El NiEl Niñño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) El Ni El Niñño & La Nio & La Niññaa


The North Atlantic OscillationThe North Atlantic Oscillation

Positive PhaseNegative Phase


Sir Gilbert Walker

RMS Symons Gold Medallist

1934

HonoursHonours

1920s: Vice President & President of the Royal Meteorological Society (RMS)

1924: Knighted in the King’s Birthday Honours

1934: RMS Symons Gold Medallist

1934: Royal Aeronautical Society Simms Gold Medallist

1935-1939: Member of RMS Council

1934-1941: Editor of the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society

1946: Honorary Fellow of Imperial College

1952: Honorary Member of the RMS


Personal LifePersonal Life

• Married May Constance Carter in 1908• Daughter Verity Micheline Walker born 1910• Son Michael Walker born 1917

Gilbert Walker with son

Michael in England

Walker’s health suffered from the strain of running the IMD, with its continual shortfalls and fluctuations in accommodation, finances and staff.

In IMD official documentation, Walker is noted as being away in Europe on a combination of privilege and medical leave from July 1911 to April 1912.

Sir Gilbert Walker died on 4 November 1958 at Woodcote Grove House, Coulsdon, Surrey, aged 90


This award, instituted by the Indian Meteorological Society in 2001, is given biennially to an eminent Indian or foreign scientist internationally recognised in the field of monsoon studies.

The Sir Gilbert Walker Gold MedalThe Sir Gilbert Walker Gold Medal

2001: Professor Jagadish ShuklaHead of the Center for Ocean-Land-

Atmosphere Studies & the School of Computational Science at George Mason University, USA

2003: Dr P.K. DasFellow of the Indian Academy of

Sciences, & former Professor of Meteorology, Centre for Atmospheric Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi


“I think that the relationships of world weather are so

complex that our only chance of explaining them is to

accumulate the facts empirically; we know that it was

impossible to explain cyclones (lows) until data of the

upper air conditions were available, and there is a strong

presumption that when we have data of pressure and

temperature at 10 and 20 km, we shall find a number of

new relations that are of vital importance.”

Sir Gilbert Thomas Walker, 1932


“He was a very normal human being, with none of the proverbial eccentricities of mathematicians

among whom he ranked high. This normality itself is perhaps a great and likable distinction.”

(Sohoni, 1959)

who was sir gilbert walker?

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