Hugh Ernest Butler

Dr Hugh Ernest Butler FRSE MRIA FRAS (1916-1978) was a Welsh-born astronomer. His work included important contributions to anti-aircraft gunnery plus major steps in galactic and extragalactic research.

He was born on 27 December 1916 in Llandaff in Glamorganshire in Wales.

He was educated firstly in Cardiff High School and then in Whitgift School in Croydon before winning a place at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, winning a scholarship to read Mathematics.

In 1940 he received an Isaac Newton Studentship and in the same year was asked to join Prof Patrick Blackett to do operational research in anti-aircraft guns in Richmond, in relation to defending the country during the Second World War.

In 1946 he returned to Cambridge to be based at the Cambridge Observatory as Senior Observer. In 1947 he transferred to Dunsink Observatory in Ireland where he stayed until 1953 when he moved north to Edinburgh Observatory where he continued for the rest of his life in the role of their Principal Scientific Officer. He set up a large Hewitt-Schmidt Camera as an outpost observatory near Peebles.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1959 and served as its Curator from 1969 until death.

He retired from the observatory in 1976 and moved to rural Peeblesshire, retaining access to their facilities.

He died at home in Peeblesshire on 10 May 1978.

He was married to Gwen by whom he had one son, John.