Charles Chree

Who was Charles Chree?

Charles Chree was a British physicist, an authority on terrestrial magnetism and atmospheric electricity, and for 32 years Superintendent of Kew Observatory.

Chree was born in Lintrathen, Forfarshire, Scotland on May 5, 1860, second son to Rev Charles Chree. He was educated at the Grammar School, Old Aberdeen, the University of Aberdeen where he graduated MA in 1879 and the University of Cambridge where he graduated as Sixth Wrangler.

Chree was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1897, his candidacy citation listing his achievements as: "Author of the following memoirs, and of many others on analogous subjects - 1. Effects of pressure on the Magnetisation of Cobalt, Phil Trans: 1890 2. Conduction of heat in liquids, Proc: R. Soc: 1887. 3. Stresses and strains in isotropic, elastic, solid ellipsoids, etc, Proc: R. Soc: 1895. 4. A solution of the equations Equilibrium of elastic solids etc, etc, Camb: Phil: Trans: XV. 5. On some compound vibrating systems, Camb: Phil: Trans: XV. 6. Changes in dimensions of solids due to given systems of forces. Camb: Phil: Trans: XV. 7. The isotropic elastic sphere and spherical shell, Camb: Phil: Trans: XV. 8. Forced vibrations in isotropic, elastic, solid spheres, and spherical shells. Camb: Phil. Trans XVI. 9. Rotating, elastic, solid cylinders of elliptic section. Phil: Mag. 1892. 10. Contribution to the theory of the Robinson Cap auxmomoter. Phil: Mag: 1895. 11. Longitudinal vibrations of aeolotropic bars with one axis of material symmetry. Quar: Journ: Math: 1890. 12. Isotropic, elastic solids of nearly spherical form. Amer: Journ: Mathem: XVI". Chree won the Royal Society Hughes Medal in 1919 "for his researches in terrestrial magnetism".