1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mill, Hugh Robert

MILL, HUGH ROBERT (1861-⁠), British geographer and meteorologist, was born at Thurso May 28 1861, and was educated at Edinburgh University. In 1884 he was appointed chemist and physicist to the Scottish marine station, and in 1887 became a lecturer for the university extension movement, being at the same time (1893-9) recorder of the geographical section of the British Association. He was president of this section in 1901. In 1892 he succeeded Dr. John Scott Keltie as librarian to the Royal Geographical Society and from 1902 to 1906 was hon. secretary of the Royal Meteorological Society, becoming its president in 1907. Dr. Mill served on many committees connected with meteorology and allied subjects, including the International Council for the study of the sea (1901-8), and the Board of Trade committee on the water power of the British Isles (1918). On the death of Mr. G. J. Symons he became (1901) director of the British Rainfall Organization, and editor of British Rainfall and Symons's Meteorological Magazine, and when the organization was converted into a trust in 1910 he became chairman of trustees, a position from which he retired in 1919. From 1906 to 1919 he was rainfall expert to the Metropolitan Water Board. Dr. Mill received many honours from learned societies, including the Victoria medal of the Royal Geographical Society (1915), and the Symons medal of the Meteorological Society (1918).

His chief works are The Realm of Nature (1892; latest ed. 1913); The English Lakes (1895); Hints on the Choice of Geographical Books (1897); New Lands (1900); The Siege of the South Pole (1905) and a historical introduction to Sir Ernest Shackleton's Heart of the Antarctic (1909). He also edited International Geography (1911).