Rupert Thomas Gould was born on 16 November 1890. He was educated at Dartmouth Royal Naval College, entering the Royal Navy in 1906. After serving in the Mediterranean, on the Yangtze, and in the Home Fleet, he suffered a mental breakdown and was invalided in 1915. From 1916 until 1927, Gould served as naval assistant in the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty, promoted in 1919 to the rank of lieutenant commander (retired). While at the Hydrographic Department, he undertook an extensive revision of all the Admiralty charts of the Antarctic and the charts of the Canadian Arctic. Deeply interested in chronometers, he spent many years restoring the chronometers of John Harrison and Captain James Cook, and in 1947 was awarded the gold medal of the British Horological Institute. His book The marine chronometer, its history and development, published in 1923, became the standard work on the subject. Gould had a wide-ranging knowledge of polar history, contributing to several publications on the subject, and his biography of Captain Cook was published in 1935. During the 1930s, his knowledge of the history and rules of tennis led him to umpire on centre court at Wimbledon, and throughout the 1930s and 1940s he worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation, featuring in radio programmes such as Children's Hour and The Brains Trust. He died on 5 October 1948.
Published work, Captain Cook by Rupert Thomas Gould, Duckworth, London (1935) SPRI Library Shelf 92[Cook, J.] The marine chronometer, its history and development by Rupert Thomas Gould, J.D. Potter, London (1923), Oddities, a book of unexplained facts by Rupert Thomas Gould, Philip Allan & Co. London (1928) SPRI Library Shelf (2)91(091), Enigmas, another book of unexplained facts by Rupert Thomas Gould, Philip Allan & Co. London (1929) SPRI Library Shelf (2)91(091)
From the guide to the Rupert Gould collection, 1921-1949, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
