Sir Gerald Ponsonby Lenox-Conyngham

Sir Gerald Ponsonby Lenox-Conyngham (1866-1956), joined the Royal Engineers and was posted in 1889 to the Trigonometrical Section of the Survey of India. His work in gravity measurements using a pendulum apparatus was an important contribution to early geodesy. He was knighted in 1919, and left India in 1920. In 1921 he became a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1922 Reader in Geodesy, running a new School virtually single-handed. With the support of the Darwin family, the School of Geodesy became the Department of Geodesy and Geophysics in 1931. Lenox-Conyngham retired in 1947, aged 81.

From the guide to the Sir Gerald Lenox-Conyngham: Correspondence and Papers, c.1881-1957, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)