by W. J. G. Beynon, rev.
© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved
Sutton, Sir (Oliver) Graham (1903-1977), meteorologist and mathematician, was born on 4 February 1903 at Cwm-carn, Monmouthshire, the second child in the family of three sons and one daughter of Oliver Sutton, headmaster of the local elementary school, and his wife, Rachel, daughter of William Rhydderch, haulage contractor, of Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire. Sutton was educated at the local elementary school, Pont-y-waun grammar school (1914-20), the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (1920-23), and Jesus College, Oxford (1923-5). The early mathematical training of Sutton and his two brothers was initially guided by their headmaster father and was later continued at the grammar school, which had an established reputation in science and mathematics. At Aberystwyth, where, in 1923, he graduated with first-class honours in pure mathematics, his teachers included W. H. Young and G. A. Schott, and his postgraduate work at Oxford (for which he obtained the degree of BSc in 1925) was supervised by G. H. Hardy.
In 1926-8 Sutton was a lecturer at his former college in Aberystwyth. His interest in meteorology was stimulated by David Brunt, himself a graduate of Aberystwyth, and in 1928 Sutton joined the Meteorological Office as a professional assistant. Seconded by the office in 1929 to the Chemical Defence Experimental Station at Porton, for the next twelve years he worked on problems in atmospheric turbulence and diffusion. Security requirements restricted freedom of publication from Porton and it was not until the conclusion of the Second World War that open recognition of Sutton's major contributions became possible. His gift for lucid explanation, which stemmed naturally from his deep physical and mathematical understanding of complex problems, was widely recognized and in addition to his scientific papers he wrote many specialist and general books on meteorological and mathematical topics, a task which gave him great satisfaction.
In 1931 Sutton married Doris, daughter of Thomas Oswald Morgan, boot and shoe merchant with a business at Pontycymer, Glamorgan. They had two sons. Throughout his career Sutton displayed considerable ability in the organization of research and development, a quality which was well recognized by the various posts to which he was appointed during the war. At Porton he was, in turn, head of the meteorological section, superintendent of research (1942-3), and head of tank armament research (1943-5). When the war ended he was for a time chief superintendent of the Radar Research and Development Establishment at Malvern (1945-7).
In 1947 Sutton was appointed the first Bashforth professor of mathematical physics at the Military College of Science at Shrivenham. He stayed there until 1952. He greatly enjoyed this temporary return to academic life where, in addition to his teaching duties, he maintained his research activity. In these years he published the key papers which established his reputation. His early research work at Porton, which was also of great importance for the study of industrial air pollution, but which had been held back as a state secret, was now published in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (73, 1947, 257-76; 74, 1948, 13-30). The reception of these papers resulted in his becoming a key member, and later chairman, of the atmospheric pollution research committee of the government Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and later in his membership of the Beaver committee which set the scene for the first Clean Air Act and for the formation of the Clean Air Council. In 1947 he also published two topical papers on the practical problem of the rise of smoke from factory chimneys; he later went on to write on atmospheric pollution in America, and on the atmospheric results of thermonuclear explosions. The Shrivenham period also saw the publication of his two main books, Atmospheric Turbulence (1949, 2nd edn 1955), and Micrometeorology (1953); as well as the first of his many popular science books, the Penguin volume on The Science of Flight (1948).
In 1953 Sutton returned to the Meteorological Office as its director-general. His period in office saw a complete reorganization of the office with a greater emphasis on research and centralization from a new headquarters building at Bracknell. He vigorously pressed forward with this reorganization and also with the development of mathematical methods and the use of electronic computers in weather forecasting. As part of the expansion on the research side he also established a section for high atmosphere research using the latest space research techniques. At the same time the public service aspects of the Meteorological Office were greatly extended. These included the establishment of weather centres open to the public, the provision of automatic telephone weather forecasts, and the extended use of television broadcasts of weather information.
Sutton was director-general of the Meteorological Office until 1965. During this period he openly recognized that his own career as a research scientist must be regarded as closed, but he continued with his non-specialist publications and maintained an interest in the research done by others. For the last three years of his career in government scientific administration (1965-8) he was chairman of the newly established Natural Environment Research Council, in the establishment of which he had played a leading part. The council's remit was to bring together the disparate environmental sciences as a unified group of disciplines, and in this Sutton was regarded as reasonably successful (though ironically his own science of meteorology remained outside the research council's aegis).
Sutton received many honours and awards, both national and international. He was president of the Royal Meteorological Society (1953-5), was awarded the society's Symons memorial gold medal in 1959, and was elected honorary fellow in 1976. He was also an honorary fellow of the American Meteorological Society and a gold medallist and fellow of the Society of Engineers. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1949, appointed CBE in 1950, and knighted in 1955. He received honorary degrees from the universities of Leeds (1956) and Wales (1961) and was an honorary fellow of Jesus College, Oxford (1958). For many years he was a leading figure in the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and he received the WMO international medal and prize in 1968.
In his last years Sutton returned to Wales, to Swansea, and an interesting glimpse of his continued concern with organization is provided by the fact that the house he built for his retirement at Swansea was of identical design to the one he had earlier built at Bracknell. In this way all the furniture fitted perfectly and the upheaval of moving house was reduced to a minimum. He served as a JP at both Bracknell and Swansea. He also became a member of the council (and later vice-president) of his old college at Aberystwyth. He died at his home, 4 The Bryn, Sketty Green, near Swansea, on 26 May 1977.
W. J. G. BEYNON, rev.
Sources
F. Pasquill, P. A. Sheppard, and R. C. Sutcliffe, Memoirs FRS, 24 (1978), 529-46
private information (1986)
personal knowledge (1986)
Likenesses
G. Argent, photograph, RS
W. Stoneman, photograph, RS; repro. in Pasquill, Sheppard, and Sutcliffe, Memoirs FRS, facing p. 529
Wealth at death
£41,828: probate, 24 Aug 1977, CGPLA Eng. & Wales
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