Edmond Herbert Grove-Hills

Edmond Herbert Grove-Hills CMG CBE FRS (1 August 1864 – 2 October 1922) was a British soldier and astronomer.^[1][2]

He was born the son of Herbert Augustus and Anna (née Grove, daughter of William Robert Grove) Hills in High Head Castle, Cumberland and educated at Winchester College until 1882, after which he entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.^[1] He later adopted the surname Grove-Hills.

Hills received a commission as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 5 July 1884, and was promoted to captain on 1 April 1893.^[3] He worked as an instructor at the Royal School of Military Engineering at Chatham, later transferring to surveying duties as a member of the General Staff. In September 1900 he was appointed deputy assistant adjutant general (DAAG) at the War Office, and promotion to major followed on 25 July 1901.^[4] He was engaged in the British tribunal to arbitrate the Chile-Argentina boundary dispute. For this service he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in December 1902.^[5]

He left the army around 1905 and attempted unsuccessfully to enter politics.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1911, his candidacy citation reading:

Distinguished as an Astronomer and Geodesist. Secretary since 1896 of the Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee of the Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society. Treasurer of the Royal Astronomical Society. Instructor in Chemistry and Photography at the School of Military Engineering, Chatham (1893–1899). Head of the Topographical Department of the War Office (1899-1905). Has taken an important part in the systematization of the Scientific Survey of the British Empire. Started the 1/1,000,000 map of Africa. Secretary of the Arbitration Tribunal to determine the frontier between Chile and Argentina (1899-1902). Employed by the War and Colonial Offices to make inspections and formulate schemes for future survey work in the following colonies: - Canada (1903), East Africa (1907); Uganda (1907), Ceylon (1907), Federated Malay States (1907), and Southern Nigeria (1909). President of the Geographical Section of the British Association (1908). Has taken part in several eclipse expeditions, West Africa (1893), Japan (1896), and India (1898), obtaining photographs of the flash and corona spectra with slit spectroscopes. Author of the following papers: - 'The Determination of Terrestrial Longitudes by Photography' (Mem Roy Astron Soc; 1897); 'The Optical Distortion of a Doublet Lens' (Monthly Notices, Royal Astron Soc; 1899); 'The Geography of International Frontiers' (Geograph Journ, 1906); and in conjunction with Sir J Larmor: - 'The Irregular Movements of the Earth's Axis of Rotation: a Contribution towards the Analysis of its Causes' (Monthly Notices, Roy Astron Soc, 1906)

— ^[6]

He developed an interest in astronomy, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He took part in observations of eclipses of the sun in 1896 (Japan) and 1898 (India). He was recalled from a similar exercise in Russia at the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and appointed Assistant Chief Engineer of Eastern Command. He was awarded CBE in 1918.

He served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1913 to 1915.

He had married in 1892 Juliet Spencer-Bell, daughter of MP James Spencer-Bell.

He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.