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SIE DAVID GILL, K.C.B., LL.D., D.Sc, F.E.S., F.E.A.S. 
(Plate XXIX.) 
It is in a spirit of deep reverence that I seek to place before the Eoyal 
Society what David Gill was in the great domain that he filled so spaciously 
— what he w^as as a pioneer in modern astronomy, what he was as an 
accomplished geographer, what he was as a competent man of affairs, and 
above all what he was as the honoured friend of a host of men in many 
lands. 
In him was blended in a pleasing and splendid harmony, strength and 
tenderness, power and gentleness, force and grace. 
Outstanding among his peers in science, a worker whose energy was 
boundless, whose industry was untiring, a thinker whose thoughts and 
visions outran the advancing march of astronomical progress, he yet 
found time for, and delight in, the discharge of a multitude of tender 
charities of hearth and home and friendship. 
His hospitalities were both generous and thoughtful ; his friendships 
wide, sincere, and lasting ; his letters — and he was ever a prodigal letter- 
writer — are the reflex of the man's sweet simplicity and strong personality ; 
his winsome magnetic influence was the visible evidence of a soul true to 
itself and responsive to what was best and noblest in others. 
His character was as ideal as his thoughts were high. Honest, 
courageous, unselfish, trustful, he gave for twenty-eight years to South 
Africa the example and the inspiration of a life lived on a high plane of 
thought and action. It may be said of him what can be said of few 
other South African workers, that the passage of the years only increased 
his reputation and his usefulness. 
One is somewhat reluctant to make choice of events and circumstances 
out of a career so happy and so fruitful, so rich and so suggestive. There 
is much to tell. And in the telling the thought may often fail of finding 
adequate expression. 
David Gill was born at 48, Skene Terrace, Aberdeen, on the 12th 
of June, 1843. His death took place at De Vere Gardens, London, on 
the 24th of January, 1914, so that the span of his life was just a little over 
the threescore years and ten. 
His father, as also his grandfather before him, were well-known and 
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