Dr Richard Bangay and his observatory

Richard Bangay son of Ellis Bangay was born in Saxlington Norfolk. In 1862 he graduated as a MD from the University of St Andrews, and also became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons during the same year. These positions he would retain to his death at the age of 98. He married Agnes Dorrington in Cheadle, Cheshire in 1880, with whom he had 7 children. During his position as a MD and surgeon he moved across the British Isles numerous times But it is his time living at Belmont in Lyme Regis, Dorset where he focused on astronomical issues building and maintaining a observatory. Bangay bought Belmont in 1883 where he would live with his increasing personal family including many extended members and servants. Here he undertook numerous expansions and redevelopments of the building including building the large observatory which overlooks Lyme Regis itself. The observatory consists of a polygonal observatory tower which still has its winding gear, now restored. Bangay was foremost a Victorian gentleman and with that respect he had interests in many fields including natural history, geology as well as astronomy. He was involved with the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field club. In 1892 July he took the club to look at Sir Henry Peeks observatory at Rousden over the country boarder in Devon. As a friend of Sir Henry Peek he was a regular to Rousden and no doubt would have had access to observe the more professionally run observatory housed at the estate. By 1902 Bangay had moved to Finsbury Park, London. He was elected to the British Astronomical Association on the 18th June 1905. With the loss of his wife in 1907 he moved to Monmouthshire where he would spend the next twenty years. He died in 1931 in Buckinghamshire in relative poverty. His daughter presented his collection of astronomical books to the British Astronomical Association. Children of note were his son Raymond whom worked at the Marconi telegraph station on the Lizard in Cornwall and wrote books on telegraphy and telephony.  

Hi Mike,

I’ve just finished watching the program. Dr Bangay sounds like a man of real character, getting someone to teach him to read and write, and then raising the money for his own education to become an medical Dr! He must have been a man with real drive. It was a shame that he wasn’t able to travel to see the solar eclipse when he was 96, though I can understand his family’s concerns.

Best wishes,

Andy

Hi David 

thankyou for adding the images.  He really does look like a traditional victorian gentleman in the pictures

Carolyn