The Directors - 1920s to 1950s
Walter Duffield, Director 1924-1929
Walter Duffield was the obvious choice for inaugural Director of the Commonwealth Solar Observatory, having championed the idea of establishing the Observatory after graduating from the University of Adelaide in 1898 and studying in England. However, it wasn’t until November 1924 that Duffield and his family, including wife Doris and children Joan, Peter and Michael, relocated to Canberra. From his temporary lodgings at Hotel Canberra (now the Hyatt Hotel), Duffield set up a small temporary observatory while he oversaw the construction work at Mount Stromlo.
Observations from Stromlo finally began in 1926 but it wasn’t until 1928 that the Duffields moved to the new Director’s Residence at Stromlo. Duffield and wife Doris were very active in the local community, with both playing in the Stromberra Quintet and members of the local Rotary Club.
During the winter of 1929 Duffield contracted influenza which developed into pneumonia. After a 9-day illness he tragically passed away on 1 August 1929 at the age of just 49. He was laid to rest at Stromlo in specially consecrated ground 800 metres from the Observatory. The simple wooden cross marking his grave was enamelled with the Royal Flying Corps coat of arms and motto “Per ardua ad astra” (“Through adversity to the stars”). Duffield had served with the RFC during the First World War.
Duffield’s daughter Joan maintained a lifelong association with the Observatory, including funding a scholarship program and funding repairs to the Heliostat following the devastating 2003 Canberra Bushfires. Joan celebrated her 100th birthday at the Observatory. She died in 2014 at the age of 104.
William Rimmer, Officer in Charge 1929-1939
Following Walter Duffield’s untimely death in 1929, William Rimmer was placed in charge of the Observatory. Born in Lancashire, England, in 1882, Rimmer studied engineering before working as a researcher at the Lockyer Observatory in East Devon.
Rimmer was approached by Director Walter Duffield to join him at Stromlo, and he worked at the Observatory from its opening, using the Oddie Telescope to study the spectroscopic parallaxes of bright Southern Hemisphere stars.
To save costs, following Duffield’s death Rimmer was appointed Officer in Charge of the Observatory, rather than being appointed Director.
Rimmer oversaw the construction of the Solar Tower and Telescope, but excavation challenges meant the project wasn’t completed until November 1931. Rimmer and Cla Allen used the telescope to conduct observations of the Sun, work that was extended in 1936 with the acquisition of a spectrohelioscope and spectroheliograph that was used by Ronald Giovanelli to study variable features on the Sun’s surface.
A review of the Observatory in the late 1930s was largely positive, but recommended Rimmer be appointed as First Assistant and an extensive search be undertaken to appoint a new Observatory Director. Consequently, in 1939 Rimmer moved into the new First Assistant position and Richard van der Riet Woolley took over as Director with a plan to change the entire direction of the Observatory to focus on stellar astronomy.
Richard van der Reit Woolley, Director 1939-1955
Richard van der Reit Woolley was born in England in 1906 and studied at Cape Town and Cambridge Universities before receiving a fellowship at California’s Mount Wilson Observatory. In 1933 he was appointed Chief Assistant at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and in 1937 he was appointed John Couch Adams Astronomer, assisting Sir Arthur Eddington.
In 1939 he joined Mount Stromlo Observatory as Director and shifted the Observatory’s focus to stellar astronomy. It soon became the Southern Hemisphere’s preeminent observatory.
During the Second World War, Stromlo focused solely on the design and production of optical munitions, before returning focus to stellar astronomy. Woolley championed the acquisition of a new 74-inch Reflector to support this. Installed in 1955, it was the equal fourth largest telescope in the world.
In 1956, after 15 years at Stromlo, Woolley returned to England to become Astronomer Royal at the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux. He left in 1972 when he was appointed inaugural Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory, a position he held until his retirement in 1976.
Woolley was Vice-President of the International Astronomical Union (1952-58); President of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (1955); and President of the Royal Astronomical Society (1963-65). He was awarded honorary degrees by the universities of Melbourne, Uppsala, Cape Town, and Sussex.
He died in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1986 at the age of 80.
Arthur Hogg, Acting Director 1955-1957
Born in Melbourne in 1903, Arthur Hogg graduated from the University of Melbourne with first class honours in chemistry. He was recruited by Stromlo Observatory Director Walter Duffield in 1929 but unfortunately Duffield died the same day Hogg took up his position. Hogg’s early research on atmospheric electrical phenomena was so impressive he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
During the Second World War, Hogg worked at the Munitions Supply Laboratories and Chemical Defence Board in Victoria. Upon his return to Stromlo, research had shifted from solar astronomy and geophysics to stellar astronomy, and he embarked on a career specialising in photoelectric photometry. He also took on most of the Observatory’s administrative work and had a leading role in establishing and troubleshooting the new 74-inch Telescope in the 1950s. When Woolley resigned in 1955, Hogg acted as Director until the recruitment of Bart Bok in 1957.
In 1957, management of Mount Stromlo Observatory was transferred from the Commonwealth to the Australian National University, and this resulted in a significant change of duties for Hogg. At this time, he took a prominent role in the search for a location for a second observatory, owing to Canberra’s increasing light pollution. Hogg’s survey work was highly instrumental in the choice of location for Siding Spring Observatory, although he unfortunately would not live to see its establishment. He suffered a heart attack in 1965 and although he returned to work, he died the following year, just a few weeks before the announcement of the commissioning of the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring.
Bart Bok, Director 1957-1966
Following Richard Woolley departure in 1955, Arthur Hogg acted as Director while a replacement was recruited. Although Woolley recommended Olin Eggen, it was Bart Bok who was offered the role.
Bok was born in the Netherlands in 1906 and spent 27 years at Boston’s Harvard Observatory, where he researched the Milky Way’s structure. Here he met astronomer and future wife Priscilla Fairfield.
Seeking a change and the chance to pursue his research on the Southern Milky Way, in March 1957 Bok commenced as Director of Mount Stromlo Observatory and Professor and Head of the Department of Astronomy at ANU. His first task was to oversee the repair and increase the efficiency of the Observatory’s telescopes, with the 74-inch Telescope, 50-inch Telescope, Uppsala-Schmidt Telescope, and Yale-Columbia Telescope all not functioning properly. One of Bok’s most significant accomplishments was overseeing the installation of a Coude Spectrograph on the 74-inch Telescope.
Bok established highly popular public astronomy nights at Stromlo, with the Observatory receiving almost 40,000 visitors per year. He also continued Woolley’s plans to establish a graduate program, with the success of this program the crowning achievement of his time at Stromlo.
Bok was also instrumental in establishing a new, dark-sky Observatory for the University at Siding Spring, near Coonabarabran, which opened in 1965
In 1966 Bok returned to the United States with his wife Priscilla to take up the position of Director at Arizona’s Steward Observatory.
