175 years of the Royal Meteorological Society: Meet the founding forecasters
by Kirsty McCabe, FRMetS
On 3 April 2025, the Royal Meteorological Society marked its 175th anniversary. Throughout the year, we’ll be celebrating the occasion with a series of articles that reflect our long-standing contributions to weather and climate science.
Although the society was first called The British Meteorological Society, it became The Meteorological Society in 1866 (when incorporated by Royal Charter) and The Royal Meteorological Society in 1883 (when Her Majesty Queen Victoria granted the privilege of adding 'Royal' to the title). Amalgamation with the Scottish Meteorological Society (which was founded in 1855) took place in 1921.
Over the society’s 175-year history there have been many notable members, but let’s focus on the 1850s for now. First up, the founding members – a gathering of ten gentlemen at Hartwell House, near Aylesbury. Those men included Dr John Lee, an astronomer and the owner of Hartwell House, and Samuel Charles Whitbread, the society’s first President. The remaining founding members were the Reverend Samuel King, the Reverend Joseph Bancroft Reade, the Reverend Charles Lowndes, James Glaisher, Edward Joseph Lowe, Vincent Fasel, John Drew and William Rutter.
The following day, 4 April 1850, five more members were admitted to the society, including the first two women (the wives of Dr Lee and Reverend Lowndes). Just over a month later, at the first ordinary meeting a further 75 members joined – including Luke Howard, the creator of the cloud classification scheme we still use today.
Ada, Countess of Lovelace, also joined the British Meteorological Society on 7 May 1850, along with her mother Lady Byron. Ada worked with Charles Babbage – the celebrated mathematician and pioneer of machine computing – for many years, showing herself remarkably prescient in her writings on the programming of Analytical Engines. These days she is widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer.
The Royal Meteorological Society may be British in its origin, but our members live and work around the world. According to the membership list from 31 December 1850, two of the society’s Honorary Members (Captain Sir John Ross and Commander Charles Gerrans Phillips) lived at the North Pole! At the time, both men were in the Arctic, taking part in the Sir John Franklin Search Expedition of 1850-51. Ross was in charge of the schooner Felix and Phillips was his second-in-command. At the Annual General Meeting held on 25 May 1852, it was reported that the Society had received “Hourly thermometrical observations taken in the Arctic seas by Admiral Sir J Ross and Commander Phillips, for seven months”.
If you want to find out more about the early members of the society, from Parisian mooners to Wakefield Prison, this fascinating article is well worth a read.
And if you want to become a member - what's stopping you? Find out more about the types of membership available and be part of the next 175 years.
