Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Greenwich Hospital School Medal for Attainments and Good Conduct, silver (H. E. Green Dec. 1904) scratch to reverse, otherwise good very fine £30-£50

Hugh Ernest Green was born at Greenwich on 2 August 1889, and was educated at the Upper Nautical School of the Greenwich Hospital School. In 1905, still in his mid-teens, he began a career in astronomy at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, as a computer in the Time and Chronometer Department, and subsequently his duties included observing with the Transit Circle and Astrographic Telescope. Consequent to a serious attack of rheumatic fever in 1907, he was unable in 1912 to pass the medical examination for appointment on the permanent establishment of the Royal Observatory. From September 1914 he was employed on the computation of tides in the Tidal Branch of the Hydrographic Department at the Admiralty until May 1918, when he resigned to join the Observatory staff at Cambridge as Second Assistant, a post he held until his death. He joined Fitzwilliam House in 1922, taking his B.A. degree in 1924 and his M.A. degree in 1927. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in March 1935, but died suddenly at Cambridge on 18 September 1944, aged 55. Sold with copied Royal Astronomical Society obituary notice.