Robert Atherton Edwin, (16 August 1839 – 15 July 1911) was a meteorologist and weather forecaster, who after a career in the Royal Navy was instrumental in the establishment of the New Zealand Meteorological Office, becoming its first director in 1900; remaining in post until 1907.
[4][2][5] His father had toured Southern France with his future brother–in– law, a Royal Navy Officer, Lt Bertram Mitford Atherton[6] after the Napoleonic Wars.
[8] He attended Wimborne Minster Grammar School in Dorset, as did his younger brother, Edward Edwin, who also followed the family tradition by joining the Royal Navy.
Edwin was offered a special appointment to the Marine Department as an additional examiner of masters and mates; he retired from the Royal Navy with the rank of commander during February 1871 and on the 18th of the same month took up his new post in the New Zealand public service.
[15] Edwin, who had studied meteorology in the Royal Navy, was influenced by the tradition of practical weather science of which Admiral Robert FitzRoy and the American, Matthew Fontaine Maury, were the most distinguished contemporary exponents.
[16] Spurred by the need for timely weather information that would enhance maritime safety, FitzRoy had begun daily forecasts from his Board of Trade office in London in 1860.
These measurements were taken simultaneously at widely separated weather stations, and by means of the electric telegraph were rapidly transmitted to a central office.
His first forecast was made in early May 1874 and a stock of mercury barometers was promptly ordered from the Met Office to improve the accuracy of observations.
Every day, observations of the general weather together with wind direction and force, the barometer reading, the shade temperature, and the sea conditions were telegraphed to Wellington.
[18] This was rather surprising in a country where the weather systems were oceanic in origin and in which the economy was critically dependent on shipping activity, with wrecks and strandings occurring frequently.
[20] When he retired as director of the Meteorological Office on 31 March 1909, his staff had expanded to four and daily forecasts were being sent to over 90 towns as well as to the newspapers and to selected lighthouses.
[20][2] Short and dapper, with a closely trimmed full beard, Edwin in his appearance reflected the meticulous care he gave to his forecasting.