A D V E N T U R E S   in   C Y B E R S O U N D

OBITUARY.

'The Times', Thursday, July 6, 1911

DR. G. J. STONEY, F.R.S.

We regret to announce that Dr. George Johnstone Stoney, Sc.D., F.R.S., died yesterday morning at his house in Chepstow-crescent, W. He had been seriously ill for ten months.

Dr. Stoney was born in Ireland in February, 1826. He was the eldest son of George Stoney, of Oakley Park, King's County; his mother was Ann, daughter of Bindon Blood, of Cranagher and Rockforrest, county Clare. His sister married the Rev. William Fitzgerald, afterwards Bishop of Cork and subsequently of Killaloe. His only brother, Bindon Blood Stoney, F.R.S., was engineer to the Dublin Port and Docks Board.

When he left Trinity College, Dublin. Lord Rosse, a warm friend of his, appointed him the first astronomical assistant at the Parsonstown Observatory, a post in which he was succeeded in after years by his brother Bindon, by Sir Robert Ball, and by other distinguished young men. While he was with Lord Rosse he competed for the Fellowship at Trinity, winning the second place and the Madden Prize. In those days examinations were conducted in Latin --a great drawback to a purely scientific student.

Stoney was examined in Hebrew, chronology, metaphysics, and classics, besides his own subjects, mathematics and physics. He did not again compete for the Fellowship, being appointed, through Lord Rosse's influence, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Queen's College, Galway, when, it may be noted, one of his unsuccessful rivals was Tyndall.

After five years work in Galway he returned to Dublin as Secretary of the Queen's University. To this task he devoted himself with his whole heart till the dissolution of the University in 1882, refusing the suggestion, pressed on him by Lord Rosse and others, that he should compete for one of the astronomical professorships at Oxford, and also for the headship of the Meteorological Office in London. As Secretary of the University, Stoney wrote a number of reports and minutes on educational matters, which were brought under the notice of the Chief Secretary of the day by the well-known Under-Secretary, Sir Thomas Larcom, Larcom, on his retirement from office, strongly urged that Stoney should be appointed his successor.

Lord Mayo sounded the latter on the subject, but Stoney frankly told him he approved of Gladstone's Disestablishment policy as best for the Church as well as for the State, and this, of Course, disposed of the matter. At the request of the Civil Service Commissioners Stoney soon after took over the duties of Superintendent of Civil Service Examinations in Ireland, which was a convenience to the Commissioners, but involved a heavy addition to his own duties and sorely curtailed his leisure for scientific work. He felt the blow of the dissolution of the University all the more severely. Of his scientific work we cannot speak in detail, but it received abundant recognition from competent persons. As long ago as 1861 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on the first occasion that his name was put up. It may be interesting to mention that it was he who suggested the name of " electron," now so familiar to scientific men. His investigations in the matter of helium were very suggestive, and he came to the conclusion, even before Sir William Ramsay's discoveries, that helium is constantly escaping from the earth, a question of considerable importance in view of the estimates now attempted of the length of geological epochs. Apart from his University distinctions and University work, he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and served constantly on the Council. Lord Lister, when President, appointed him one of the vice-presidents. He was a Visitor of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and of the Royal Institution in London. He was honorary secretary to the Royal Dublin Society for over 20 years, and at the Sheffield meeting of the British Association he was president of Section A. He was a foreign member of the Academy of Science at Washington and of the Philosophical Society of America. He served on the Committee of the British Association which decided on the " C.G.S." system of units, now universally adopted, and on many other committees of the Association. He was a member of the Joint Committee on Solar Research of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society, and of several international committees for scientific objects.

To those who knew him personally he was endeared by the simplicity and lovableness of his character, by his constant ready help to younger scientific men, and his desire to assist women in their hard struggle to obtain a higher and wider education. Unlike some men of science, his sympathies were wide. He had a keen interest in music and in general literature, and great power both of appreciating and depicting the beauties of nature.

Dr. Stoney married his cousin Margaret, sister of Canon Stoney. He leaves two sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Gerald, has just been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He holds a Watt medal of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, and is manager of the well-known turbine works of the Hon. Sir Charles Parsons, F.R.S. One of the daughters is Lecturer in Physics at the London School of Medicine for Women, and another is an M.D. of the University of London, in practice in Harley-street. His brother Bindon, the engineer, died two years before him. His sister's son, Mr. George Francis Fitzgerald F.T.C.D., F.R.S., a distinguished scientist, also pre-deceased him. General Sir Bindon Blood, R.E., and Mr. Edward Stoney, C.I.E., are cousins. Professor Maurice Fitzgerald, of Belfast, is a nephew. A niece is married to Professor Culverwell, F.T.C.D. and a cousin is the wife of the Very Rev. James Walsh, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

'The Times', Thursday, July 6, 1911

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