Thomas Kerr died 125 years ago today. His name has passed into oblivion - but if you were to question a gaggle of Irish meteorologists one or two of them might say "Ah, yes. Wasn't he the man who, many years ago . . . ?" And thereby hangs a simple little tale.
In the early 1860s it was decided by the powers that be in London that more weather observations were required to feed the embryonic art of weather forecasting. Valentia Island, Co Kerry, was chosen for its strategic meteorological location, and daily weather observations came to be performed there by R. J. Lecky, the manager of the local telegraphic station.
So useful did this information prove to be that it was quickly resolved to establish a proper weather observatory on the island. In 1867 "an ordinary dwelling house of small size" was leased from the Knight of Kerry; a barograph, a thermograph and an anemograph for measuring the wind were duly dispatched from London on the HMS Wyvern ; and Rev Thomas Kerr, formerly a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, was appointed the Observatory's first director.
Kerr was trained in the mysteries of meteorology at Kew Observatory, and then set out from London to take up his new appointment. In Valentia Observatory: a History of the Early Years, Kerr's incumbent successor, Jackie O'Sullivan, describes the journey:
"Travel to the island was time-consuming, arduous and expensive. A trip from London to Valentia involved a journey by railroad to either Liverpool or Southampton to connect with a ship to Dublin or Cork, from where the onward journey to Killarney was again made by railroad. Having disembarked from the train at Killarney, the weary traveller was faced with the 40-mile journey to Cahirciveen in an open horsedrawn coach. This was followed by a three-mile trip by pony-and-trap to Valentia Harbour to connect with a ferry to the island."
Kerr arrived on Valentia Island on June 15th, 1868. Once settled, he would have found himself, on his salary of £250 per year, a relatively affluent member of a community where the average wage for a labourer was one shilling a day. In any event, Thomas Kerr lived there for the next seven years, tending his instruments and keeping faithful watch upon the weather. He died on August 21st, 1875, and is buried in the local Church of Ireland cemetery.
Seventeen years later the Observatory abandoned Valentia in all but name, and settled at Cahirciveen, just across the sound that separates the island from the Kerry mainland.