FitzRoy and Maury (continued)

FitzRoy had not waited for many years, as had his friend Charles Darwin, to sift carefully through all the scientific evidence before producing a theory which would stand the test of time. He felt impelled by the loss of life in storms, particularly those at sea, to make every effort to warn of these conditions.

The Times, which had been kind to him, began to grow increasingly critical. A leading article in April 1862 stated that 'last week Nature seems to have taken special pleasure in confounding the conjectures of science'. And FitzRoy's friend Maury also appeared to turn against him, being not wholly enthusiastic about forecasting.

On 13 April 1865, feeling that the world was against him, FitzRoy went to his dressing room, took his razor and cut his throat. Let all those who venture into the realms of weather forecasting arm themselves well against the slings and arrows of the armchair scientists and the news media!

Another contributory cause to FitzRoy's suicide was the public controversy that raged at that time between Wilberforce and Darwin regarding Darwin's theory on the origin of species, which many regarded as sacrilege. FitzRoy, a very religious man, felt some guilt that he had been associated with the development of Darwin's theories in those far off days in the voyage of the Beagle.

Bureau of Meteorology