448 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Born in 1 864, he was a son of Herbert A. Hills, of High Head 

 Castle, Cumberland. He was educated at Winchester and, 

 passing through Woolwich, received a commission in the Royal 

 Engineers in 1884, and served with that corps in varied capaci- 

 ties until his retirement with the rank of major. The European 

 War found him in Russia, whither he and Prof. Fowler had 

 carried their instruments to observe an eclipse of the sun. He 

 succeeded in getting home, rejoined the army, and served 

 throughout the war in the capacity of Assistant Chief Engineer 

 of the Eastern Command, reaching the rank of brigadier-general 

 in 191 8. Few could give more to the war than he, for he lost 

 both his sons in it. Of his official work with the army in 

 topography, and as a member of numerous boundary com- 

 missions, others will speak. I would refer here to his contri- 

 butions, too few but always valuable, to astronomy. Four 

 times he took part in eclipse expeditions, in 1893 in West 

 Africa, 1896 in Japan, 1898 in India, and 1914 in Russia. 

 Actual observation was only possible in the first and third of 

 these, and Grove-Hill's contributions were completely success- 

 ful. In the Indian eclipse in particular he obtained most 

 excellent photographs of the " flash " or chromospheric spec- 

 trum, which appears for an instant, with the Fraunhofer lines 

 reversed from dark to bright, when the sun's disk is just 

 obscured. Besides this aptitude for manipulation, he had an 

 intuitively correct grasp of dynamical theory. His most 

 important published paper, written in collaboration with Sir J. 

 Larmor, deals with the Chandler movements of the earth's 

 axis of rotation. Given the observed movements, what applied 

 forces do these imply ? — for they certainly do not correspond 

 to the classical theory of " motion of a body under no forces." 

 An analysis is made, full of suggestive views, and if the outcome 

 is not conclusive, that is only further evidence of the intricacy 

 of the phenomenon. But though Grove-Hills will be rated 

 highly for his capacity as a scientific man, it is chiefly the 

 personal side that his friends will remember. He took great 

 interest in the affairs of the Royal Astronomical Society, served 

 as President in 191 3-1 5, and twice filled the office of Treasurer, 

 carrying it, by his wise and energetic action, past the monetary 

 crisis which has faced so many scientific societies owing to recent 

 conditions. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 

 in 191 1. From 191 2 he was Honorary Director of the Durham 

 University Observatory, He was a member of the Board 

 of Visitors of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Recently 

 he became Secretary and Vice-President of the Royal Institu- 

 tion, a post for which his good judgment, his varied interests 

 and wide circle of friends peculiarly fitted him. No notice of 

 Grove-Hills, upon the personal side, would be complete without 



