522 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1915. 



strenuous life of scientific activity in London. He became presi- 

 dent and afterwards foreign secretary of the Eoyal Astronomical 

 Society, president of the British Association at Leicester, and on 

 the councils of the Eoyal and Royal Geographical Societies as presi- 

 dent d'honneiir of the committee of the astrographic chart, and in 

 numerous other duties he was a center of energy and initiative. For 

 several j'ears he worked at his History and Description of the Cape 

 Observatory, published in 1913. Amid our sorrow at his death, 

 Avhen still in the full vigor of scientific activity, there is cause for 

 thankfulness that he was spared to complete and to see the reception 

 of this retrospect of the work to which he had devoted his life. 



To this record of strenuous work in the cause of science must be 

 added some allusion to the other side of his life. There was an ideal 

 background to his public life in the quiet home, always characteris- 

 tically Scotch wherever he lived. In Lady Gill he found a sympa- 

 thizer in all his sacrifices and devotion to astronomy. She did not 

 become an astronomer, but she shared all his desires, and it was ever 

 her care to aid him to fulfill his great calling. She was of Scotch 

 birth, like himself, and their home was bright with an indescribable 

 spirit of open-heartedness which seemed to come from his loved 

 Highlands. 



In December, 1913, he was seized with double pneumonia, and from 

 the first the gravity of the illness w^as realized. His magnificent 

 constitution carried him bravely through a long fight with the dis- 

 ease, but heart failure supervened, and on the morning of January 

 24 he died peacefully. 



There is no need to enumerate the honors conferred on him by the 

 British, French, and German Governments, and by numerous acad- 

 emies and universities. Official recognition was generously be- 

 stowed; even richer was the tribute of admiration and affection of 

 his world-wide circle of friends. 



