Sir John Mason CB DSc FRS - Obituary

It is with sadness that we announce the death of Sir John Mason FRS CB DSc

The Physics Department is sad to announce the death of Sir John Mason CB DSc FRS, who passed away on 6 January 2015 at the age of 91. 

There will be a memorial service at Christchurch, East Sheen, London, SW14  7RT at 2pm Tuesday, February 24th, 2015. There will be a reception afterwards at The Victoria Public House, Dining Room & Hotel 10 West Temple Sheen London SW14 7RT (approx. 3 to 5pm) next to church with a memorial table with some photos etc.  All friends and colleagues are welcome to attend this ‘celebration of his life’. Please let his son, Professor Nigel Mason, know if anyone will be attending.   n.j.mason@open.ac.uk.

Sir John Mason was born at Docking, Norfolk, on August 18 1923 and educated at Fakenham Grammar School. He started his tertiary education at University College, Nottingham but was commissioned into the radar branch of the RAF when war broke out. He became Chief Instructor at the Fighter Command Radar School and after the end of the war, he worked in telecommunications and then returned to Nottingham to complete his external University of London degree.

He joined Imperial College in 1948 and promptly took up the post of assistant lecturer in meteorology. He was eventually made a professor of cloud physics in 1961. His work there included the Mason Equation, giving the growth or evaporation of small water droplets. Amongst his students he gained the reputation of possessing an imperious persona and was never doubtful of his research results. He published several books which included ‘The Physics of Clouds’, ( 1957 ) and ‘Clouds, Rain and Rainmaking’ (1962 ) From 1960 onwards, he modernised the World Meteorological Organisation and was awarded many honours. In 1965 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and also received the Chree Medal from the Institute of Physics.

He left Imperial in 1965 and took up the post of Director General of the UK Meteorological O­ffice from 1965 to 1983. In 1968, he became President of the Royal Meteorological Society until 1970 and in 1972, received the Rumford Medal from the Royal Society followed later by the Society’s Royal Medal in 1991. In 1973 he was honoured with the companion of the Order of the Bath and was later knighted in 1979 for his services to meteorology. He has been a Fellow of Imperial since 1974. The Mason Centre for Environmental Flows at the University of Manchester was opened by Mason in 2004. He also established and endowed the Mason Gold Medal in 2006 at the Royal Meteorological Society. Other published works include ‘Acid rain and its Effects on Inland Waters’ ( 1992 ) and ‘Highlights in Environmental Research - Professorial Inaugural lectures at Imperial College’ (editor, 2000).