The Charles Close Society for the study of Ordnance Survey Maps - about Charles Close
Colonel Sir Charles Arden Close was Director-General of the
Ordnance Survey from 1911 to 1922. A man of immense stature and
accomplishment in his time, he was, moreover, a link between the
traditions of the nineteenth century and the future practices
of the twentieth. He was responsible for the inception of many
of the maps now sought after by collectors, and injected into
OS a measure of geodetic excellence which it had not experienced
since the days of Clarke in the 1850s.
He is perhaps best known today for his book 'The Early Years of the Ordnance Survey', of which it has been said that 'in writing these historical and individual notes, Close performed a service to the Ordnance Survey as well as to British geodesy and British surveyors'. Much of the book was based on the papers collected by Major-General Thomas Colby, Superintendent of OS from 1820 to 1846, and of which Close had custody. He presented the papers to OS in 1927, but they were destroyed in the Second World War.
1865 : Born one of 13 children.
1884 : Comissioned in the Royal Engineers. Then went to Gibralter
and the East and then the Survey of India where he carried out
topographic work in Burma and the triangulation at Mandalay.
1895 : Transferred to Africa where Close surveyed boundaries through
the bush in areas previously unmapped.
1898 : Returned to Africa as British Commisioner.
1902 : Became Chief Inspector in Surveying at The Chatham School
of Military Engineering. Here he compiled his Text Book of
Topographical and Geographical Surveying (First published
1905), whch was for many years the standard work on the subject.
1905 : Joined the War Office (aged 40) as Head of Geographical
Section.
1911 : In August Close accepted the post of Director General of
the Ordnance Survey.
1914 : First World War begins.
1913 : Married aged 48
1918 : First World War ends.
1918 : Knighted for services during the First World War.
1921 : Close contributed a series of articles to The Royal
Engineers' Journal about the origins and first years of Ordnance
Survey. These were later collected together into a book and published
as The Early Years of the Ordnance Survey. (republished
in 1969)
1922 : Close stands down as Director General and retires from
the Ordnance Survey.
1922 : Close becomes Secretary of the International Geographical
Congress, and then later President a position he held until the
Second World war.
1938 : Sir Charles took the name 'Arden-Close' under the terms
of a bequest.
1952 : Close dies aged 87 and was survived by his wife for 3 months.
1980 : The Charles Close Society for the
Study of Ordnance Survey maps is founded