Edwin Dunkin
British astronomer
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He was born 19 August 1821, the son of William Dunkin (1781 – 3 July 1838) and Mary Elizabeth (1797–1873), the daughter of David Wise, a Redruth surgeon. He was the third son of a family of four brothers and a sister.
His father worked as a computer for The Nautical Almanac in Truro, Cornwall. In 1832 the family moved to London, where his father worked for the London office of The Nautical Almanac.
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Education
He and his younger brother, Richard (1823–1895) were educated at Wellington House Academy, Hampstead, and at M. Liborel's school in Guînes in the Pas de Calais.
Career
In 1838 his father died and his mother remarried. He returned to London to seek work, and, on the recommendation of Davies Gilbert and Lieutenant Stratford, was employed at the Royal Greenwich Observatory as a computer. George Airy, the astronomer royal, was soon impressed by him, and in 1840 Dunkin was promoted to a post in the new magnetic and meteorological department, becoming a permanent member of the observatory's staff in 1845.
Personal life
He married in 1838 Maria Hadlow of Peckham, a stockbroker's daughter. He always maintained his Cornish connections, naming his villa in Blackheath "Kenwyn", after the village near Truro. Dunkin died at Brook Hospital in Kidbrook on 26 November 1898 after a short illness. He was survived by one son, Edwin Hadlow Wise Dunkin, author of The Monumental Brasses of Cornwall with Descriptive, Genealogical and Heraldic Notes, 1882; and of The Church Bells of Cornwall, 1878.
Scientific work
Dunkin's meticulous accuracy and dependability led to him being given charge of a number of investigations, including the adjustment and error quantification of instruments such as Greenwich's new lunar azimuth and transit circle, and the expedition to Norway in 1851 to observe the total eclipse.
Airy also used Dunkin as a reliable "man on the spot" in various non-Greenwich activities, including pendulum experiments at Harton colliery, and the determinations of the longitudes of the Brussels and Paris observatories. In 1881, on Airy's retirement, Dunkin was promoted to chief assistant, or Deputy Astronomer Royal, holding that post until he retired in 1884.
Dunkin was a highly sociable man. In 1845 he was elected to the Royal Astronomical Society, and in 1884 was elected its president. He was delighted to be elected to the RAS Dining Club in 1868, becoming its president in 1880. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1876 and later served on the Council of the Royal Society. He was President of the Royal Institution of Cornwall in 1890 and 1891.
A prolific writer and popular communicator of astronomy, he wrote many articles for The Leisure Hour and other periodicals, in addition to his scientific papers. His most famous work was The Midnight Sky, with detailed charts of the London sky, all of which he had computed himself.