Richard Anthony Proctor
1837–88
Astronomer and science writer. BA, theology, King’s College, London, 1856. BA, Cambridge, 1860. Admitted to Lincoln’s Inn, 1858. Turned to astronomy and popular science writing after losing his money by failure of a New Zealand bank, 1866. Founded Knowledge, a weekly scientific periodical, in 1881. Taught mathematics at private military school in Woolwich, and toured in America and Australia, lecturing on science. Lived in Missouri and then Florida from 1881.
Sources
Alum. Cantab.
ODNB
Bibliography
Alum. Cantab.: Alumni Cantabrigienses. A biographical list of all known students, graduates and holders of office at the University of Cambridge, from the earliest times to 1900. Compiled by John Venn and J. A. Venn. 10 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1922–54.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
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