Alan Hunter CBE (9 September 1912 – 11 December 1995) was an English astronomer who spent his career at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, serving as Director between 1973 and 1975.
[1][2] Alan Hunter was born in East Ham, then in Essex but now part of the London Borough of Newham, on 9 September 1912.
He attended East Ham Grammar School, then studied physics at Imperial College London from where he graduated with a BSc degree.
[1][2] During the Second World War, Hunter was transferred temporarily to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, where he researched into the properties of metals.
[1][2] Alan Hunter was promoted to be Chief Assistant in 1961, when he was responsible for the Royal Greenwich Observatory's administration.
This put him in charge of the institution as the latest in a series of eleven astronomers royal and two directors over nearly 300 years.