Mervyn A. Ellison

Mervyn Archdall Ellison (5 May 1909 – 12 September 1963) was an Irish astronomer. He was recognized as a world authority on solar physics and the effect of solar flares on the Earth.

Life He was born at Fethard-on-Sea in County Wexford, Ireland, the third son of Reverend William Frederick Archdall Ellison, He also served as president of the University Philosophical Society in 1931-32. In 1931–32 he worked on radium emanations for the Dublin hospitals under a Fitzgerald Research Scholarship. He was awarded a M.Sc. in 1932 and a Sc.D. in 1944.

Ellison became senior science master at Sherborne School in Dorset, 1933, then married Patricia Herron in 1934. The couple had two daughters and a son. On 29 May 1935 Ellison joined the British Astronomical Association. He also completed his own spectrohelioscope during this period, to study the Sun following the sunspot minimum. With the start of the world war, he organized an Air Cadet Training Corps, then joined the Operational Research Group at the Admiralty. In 1958 he was appointed director of the Dunsink Observatory, and worked on several astronomical publications. He fell ill in 1963 and died. (Note that the asteroid 10177 Ellison is not named after him, but rather the author Harlan Ellison.)

Family He married Patricia Elizabeth Goddard Herron in 1934.