Francis John Welsh Whipple

Francis John Welsh Whipple (17 March 1876 – 25 September 1943) was an English mathematician and meteorologist. From 1925 to 1939 he was superintendent of the Kew Observatory.

He was the son of Kew Observatory employees George Matthew Whipple and Elizabeth Beckley, an astronomical photographer.

Whipple attended the Merchant Taylors' School and obtained a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1895; he was placed Second Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos of 1897.

In 1899, he showed that bicycles could be self stable.

From 1899-1912 he was Assistant Master at Merchant Taylors' School, and he worked at the Meteorological Office from 1912-1925. He served as president of the Royal Meteorological Society from 1936 to 1937.