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Cedric was born in 1931 in Halesowen where he lived all his life. While in National Service at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, he worked as a radio and radar technician on Lancasters. It seems that Cedric wanted to be the Met man, and their Met man wanted to be a radio man, but the RAF would not agree to a swap! He became a teacher of maths and physics in a local school, progressing to become Deputy Head teacher at Windsor High School until 1986 when he retired aged 55. Cedric became interested in meteorology from an early age, making his first regular observations from 1st January 1946. He made continuous observations from 1956, and when computers appeared on the scene he spent 12 months transferring his first 40 years records onto spreadsheets. He became especially interested in weather satellite systems, downloading images from both orbiting and geostationary satellites, and used automated recording systems as they became available alongside his ongoing manual observations. For some time Alan Davies, a close friend, assisted Cedric in building, maintaining and mending his equipment, and I am most grateful to Alan for seeing that I had a copy of the records I now possess, both electronic data and some handwritten records which are of historic interest. Cedric certainly was an experienced and dedicated observer, which is evident from the clarity and detail he included in his daily records. He regularly provided reports to television and the press as well as giving talks to local groups. I have a copy of an article he wrote "Watching the Weather - My Years with Satellite Acquisition" for the launch issue of GEO (Group for Earth Observation) quarterly magazine in the Spring of 2002, and it is with sadness that Issue 5 of the same magazine published in March 2005 carried his obituary and some letters from those who had known him. I cannot bring myself to remove the black Rotring pen he left in the current page of his blue recording book, with the last entry filled in on 5th November 2004, the last observation he was able to write in it. His observations were his life, and took precedence over everything else.
ARTICLES I am including just a sample of Cedric's articles, which I have selected with a snow theme, as I am currently (this was written in early January 2010) looking at snow outside my window ! They document the Winters of 1947, 1981 and 1985, which were all snowy! 19470300 The Winter of 1947 in detail.pdf 19470300 The Winter of 1947 in Halesowen (with pics).pdf 19810200 February snow was a chilly reminder.pdf 19811200 Records broken in big freeze.pdf 19820100 Worst freeze since 1963 - record low.pdf 19850200 Siberian weather - lowest for 40 years.pdf
KEEPING UP THE GOOD WORK Cedric's Station was located about 1km from my own home from which I now make daily observations to add to his valuable work over the years. I hope my contribution, albeit as an enthusiastic amateur without his experience, but coincidentally coming from a physics and maths background, spending most of my working life teaching locally and with a childhood interest in weather, will be useful in carrying on weather record-keeping in this area. I enjoy playing with databases, so getting all the data available to me into a form where I can "ask it questions" has been a challenge, but it is satisfying to be able to answer questions when I am asked, as well as being able to research trends over the last 50 years or so, and other projects where knowledge of local temperatures or rainfall are essential. |
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