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Searching for information on astronomer’s wife
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| ANY INFORMATION? Erica Johana Henrietta Butterworth |
ASTRONOMER Gary Kewin would like to know if anyone recognises this face.
Gary, who is researching the life of Charles Frederick Butterworth, has found that his second wife, Erica Johana Henrietta Butterworth, lived in Morcombelake in Dorset before she died in 1981 in Weymouth hospital.
"I was wondering if anyone can remember her and can help me in finding out what kind of person she was and if she had any family," said Gary.
"Butterworth was an astronomer; quite a famous astronomer," he said. "He died in 1946. He lived on the Isle of Man."
After Butterworth's first wife died in 1941, he married Erica, 30 years his junior.
"She was German and had been interned on the Isle of Man as a prisoner of war," explained Gary.
"I found out her name in the museum over here. They married in 1942. When he died, she stayed on until 1950, then she sold the house, Beach Villa at Port St Mary, where he had an observatory."
From 1950 she lived near Morcombelake, where she remained until 1981. "I do not think she remarried," said Gary. "I know that she had two sisters."
Butterworth, whose main interest lay in the observation of variable stars - stars which undergo significant variation in their luminosity - observed a total of 106,000 of these in his lifetime. A feat for which he was awarded, in 1941, the Walter Goodacre Medal and Gift of the British Astronomical Association.
"He was given the Goodacre Medal for service to astronomy," said Gary. "He was given some French awards in Lyon as well."
"I gave a talk on him to my local society and to the Leeds Astronomical Society," said Gary. "It's been published in one or two magazines."
To add to his knowledge on his subject, Gary would like to know if Erica made any friends while she was in Dorset and of general background on what she was like.
If you know anything of Erica and her time here in Dorset, contact Nicola Rayner at the contact details above.
11:55am Tuesday 18th March 2008
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