Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/32

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
AITCHISON—ALBANI.
15

astronomy; the Copley medal of the Royal Society, for optical theories; the Royal medal of the same, for tidal investigations; the Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society on two occasions, for discovery of an inequality of long period in the movements of Venus and the Earth, and for reduction of the planetary observations; the Albert Medal, presented by the Prince of Wales; and the medal of the Institution of Civil Engineers for suggestions on the construction of bridges of very wide span. From the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh he has also received the honorary degrees of D.C.L. and LL.D.; he is a F.R.S., a Member of the Royal Astronomical Society, and of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, and an Honorary Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers; is one of the eight Foreign Associates of the Institute of France; and has long been connected, as Foreign Correspondent, with many other foreign academies. Appointed one of the first members of the Senate of the University of London, he soon after resigned the office. He served on the Royal Commission appointed in 1868 to inquire into the standard weights and measures; was nominated a Companion (Civil) of the Bath, May 17, 1871; and created a Knight Commander of the same order, July 30, 1872. On Dec. 1, 1873, Sir G. B. Airy resigned the position of President of the Royal Society which he had held for two years. He was honoured by admission to the freedom of the City of London in 1875; and he was elected a Foreign Associate of the Dutch Academy of Sciences in 1878. On his resignation of the post of Astronomer Royal in 1881 the Treasury awarded him a pension of £1100 per annum in consideration of his long and valuable services.


AITCHISON, George, A.R.A., architect, was born Nov. 7, 1825, at 52, Edgeware Road, London, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School and University College, London. He graduated B.A. at the London University in 1850, having previously been appointed a student at the Royal Academy in 1847. From 1853 to 1855 he travelled in France and Italy. He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of British Artists in 1862, and afterwards became a member of the Council. He was appointed examiner for the Voluntary Architectural examination, and also examiner for the National Art Prizes at South Kensington. Mr. Aitchison gained medals at the Philadelphia, Sydney and Melbourne Exhibitions; was made an officer of Public Instruction by the French Government in 1879; and on June 2, 1881, was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in the place of the late William Burges. He gave lectures on Architecture at the Royal Academy in 1882. Mr. Aitchison has built large warehouses for the London and St. Katherine Dock Co.'s offices, Mark Lane, Mincing Lane; workmen's restaurants in the Borough and Whitechapel; schools at Farley and Knoyle; houses for Lord R. Grosvenor at Stalbridge; for Sir F. Leighton, P.R.A. at Kensington, and for Mr. J. Stewart Hodgson; a studio for Mr. P. H. Calderon, R.A.; a picture gallery for Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A.; and a Board room with furniture for the Thames Conservancy. He has also altered and decorated houses for Mr. P. Wyndham, M. P., the Duke of Montrose, the Princess Louise, Mr. F. Lehman, Mr. T. Eustace Smith, Mr. John Aird, and the Arab Hall for Sir F. Leighton. He likewise designed the fittings and furniture for the British Art section of the Paris Exhibition.


ALBANI, Madame, vocalist, is a French Canadian, being a native of Montreal, and her real name is Emma la Jeunesse. She was trained in the study of music from early