Wragge, Clement L (1852-1922)

WRAGGE, CLEMENT LINDLEY (1852-1922), meteorologist, was born on 18 September 1852 at Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England, only child of Clement Ingleby Wragge, solicitor, and his wife Anna Maria, née Downing. Orphaned in early childhood, Clement was educated at Uttoxeter Grammar School, Staffordshire, and articled to a London solicitor. He went to sea, visited Sydney and in 1876 joined the South Australian surveyor-general's department. Wragge studied meteorology and in 1878 returned to Britain where he established weather observation stations, including one on Ben Nevis, Scotland, for which he received the gold medal of the Scottish Meteorological Society. Back in South Australia he set up similar stations at Walkerville and Mount Lofty in 1884, and founded the Meteorological Society of Australasia in 1886.

Clement Lindley Wragge worked for the Surveyor-General's Department, South Australia 1876-78 when he returned to England. During the 1880s he came back to Australia and established a number of observatories. He was Queensland Government Meteorologist 1887-1902.

Wragge arrived in Australia from England as a seaman at a young age and, after some years in New South Wales and Queensland, left for the US, but returned to South Australia and came under the influence of Sir Charles Todd. He returned to England in 1878 and established the Ben Nevis Observatory in Scotland in 1881. Back in Australia, he established observatories on Mt Lofty (SA), Mt Wellington (Tasmania) and Mt Kosciusko (New South Wales) before being appointed Queensland Government Meteorologist in 1887. From there he began issuing weather maps and forecasts for the whole of Australia. When passed over for the post of Commonwealth Meteorologist in 1907 he moved to Auckland and established a private weather service. A Hundred Years of Science and Service, Bureau of Meteorology, 2001.