Britain’s Long Forgotten “Rain Man” Remembered By The Lake District
Wednesday 28th Jul 2010 16:09:27
A Lake District businessman has taken part in a moving memorial service in London to remember the forgotten “Rain man of Britain” - over a century after he died.
The late Meteorologist George James Symons, is considered the Godfather of Rainfall Study across Britain. In Victorian times, he devised the pioneering system of getting householders across the British Isles to collect rainfall so annual records could be sent to him to increase our understanding of the weather.
His life’s work means present-day weather presenters and the media can declare that a particular month has been the wettest, or driest, “since records began,” which is particularly relevant this year with droughts at some Lakes, and heavy rain throughout Cumbria at the start of the school summer holidays.
Symons died back in 1900 and in the 110 years that have passed, his grave in Kensal Green Cemetery, London, has become so badly-weathered that his name, date of death and epitaph was unreadable. Visitors to the cemetery would not know the grave was the final resting place of such a remarkable man.
Mark Weir runs his Honister Slate Mine business just a mile from Seathwaite in what is officially the UK’s wettest recorded place every year. The mountaintop mine is also just a few miles from Keswick which in November 2009 saw the “worst recorded day of rain in ever seen in Britain,” and close to Cockermouth, the epicentre of the “once-in-a-1000-year” Cumbrian floods.
Mr Weir watched a BBC documentary last summer about the weather, where the condition of Symons’s “unmarked grave” was lamented
as resembling that of “a forgotten pauper.”
Brian Cathcart, a journalist and author, told viewers in the programme: “This is the grave of George James Symons, the great pioneer of the study of British rainfall. There is no headstone. There’s nothing to help us remember the man who told us more than anybody about rainfall in these islands. An unmarked grave like a forgotten pauper. This is the man who has left us with that ability to say “the wettest July since records began.”
Following the programme, Mr Weir decided to get in touch with the Royal Meteorological Society, to see what could be done about the state of the grave.
Mr Weir, a trained helicopter pilot, relies on reliable weather forecasts for safely flying around the Lake District, home to some of the country’s wildest weather.
His daily “commute to work” takes him to the top of a 1100ft high mountain pass through one of the most remote parts of the Lake District.
Mr Weir offered free of charge to fly two pristine fresh slabs of Lake District slate to the Royal Meteorological Society based in Reading as part of the formal rededication of Symons’ Grave. 2010 is also the anniversary of the British Rainfall Society, which Symons helped found.
One of Honister’s most popular industrial products it produces are high-quality slate headstones. It is regarded as one of the most enduring of all - famous for its glossy “blue-green hue.”
The slate is mined from within a mountain – Fleetwith Pike – and is over 450 million-years-old. As well as being used by Romans, the mine is believed to have been used by the Monks of Furness Abbey.
It is also one of the hardest slates in the world - used to make the tiles on the roofs of Buckingham Palace, as well as New Scotland Yard.
Mr Weir said: “I was genuinely moved when I watched the programme and saw that his grave had faded to such an extent that anyone passing would think he was a nobody. What we know about rain today, we know because of George James Symons and it should be commemorated. I felt immensely honoured that slate from Honister Slate Mine in the Lake District, will now be down in the heart of London at the final resting place of one of Britain’s forgotten heroes. Visitors to the cemetery over the next 100 years will know who he was and why he is so significant to our history.”
Mr Weir attended the memorial service which featured members of the Royal Meteorological Society. The new inscription reads:
“Here lies George James Symons FRS – 1838 -1900
Founder of the British Rainfall Organisation
Pioneer In The Scientific Study Of Rainfall
Twice President Of The Royal Meteorological Society
Philip Eden, a vice president for the Royal Meteorological Society, said: “The excellent BBC television programme entitled “Rain”, first broadcast in 2009, revealed that the grave of George James Symons - the father of rainfall observing in the UK - had become overgrown and uncared for. Mark Weir, the owner of Honister Slate Mine, got in touch with the Royal Meteorological Society and made a very generous offer to refurbish the grave and raise a headstone, using Honister slate. Honister is, of course, one of the wettest places in the country, and it is particularly appropriate that its slate should be used to celebrate a man whose entire life was given over to the study of rainfall.”
“I featured in the programme and unbeknown to Mark, had had exactly the same reaction to seeing Symons's grave in such a state of disrepair. Along with colleague Stephen Burt, I urged the Met Society's Council to do something about it. Fortunately we were pushing at an open door. We agreed to go ahead with repairs and a general clean-up. Honister's offer of slate to help with the refurbishment was gratefully and enthusiastically accepted by Council, and it was a delight to see Mark Weir and his colleagues at the rededication ceremony on, appropriately enough, St Swithin's Day - July 15.”
People can see an interview with Brian Cathcart talking about George James Symons, by going to www.honister.tv and following the “Since Records Began,” tab on the right hand side of the page.
Mr Cathcart gives an overview of Symons and says: “I always think that when people hear that phrase “since records began,” they should think of George James Symons – because he was “when records began. He started it.”
Examination of the site, discovered the level of the cemetery has risen 12 inches since Symons’ burial in 1900, due to grass cuttings left as compost raising the height of the cemetery floor.
Info about George James Symons:
In the 1860s, Symons, a passionate meteorologist, devoted his energies to organising a band of “volunteer observers” to collect rainfall throughout every corner of the British Isles. It would become the first systematic recording of rainfall patterns, yet he never received any payment for his work.
In 1899, a year before his death, there were over 3500 stations in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, manned by enthusiasts recording rain date and submitting the research for decades of subsequent use and analysis, creating the “records began” we now often hear about at the end of news and weather reports.
