Charles Collis Hammond was the son of Charles Hammond and his wife Louisa Ann, born Collis. He was a lightkeeper at various lighthouses along the Cape coast over a period of almost four decades. By 1867 he was stationed at the harbour lighthouse in Port Elizabeth, where he remained to at least 1872. He made regular meteorological observations during this period and published these in the form of a set of tables containing monthly mean values of temperature, pressure, humidity and rainfall, under the title Results deduced from meteorological observations made at the light-house, Port Elizabeth, in the years 1867-1872.

In 1879 Hammond was still living in Port Elizabeth and during 1879-1880 was a meteorological observer for the Meteorological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope. He was appointed a lightkeeper in the Cape civil service in December 1890, and in July 1894 was transferred to Cape Agulhas. From 1897 he manned a second order meteorological station there for the Meteorological Commission. In October 1899 he was transferred to Bird Island, Algoa Bay, where he was in charge of a new second order meteorological station from 1901 until his retirement in 1904 or 1905. His observations were included in the commission's annual report under his name until 1904. He was not married.

List of sources:
Cape of Good Hope. Civil service list, 1896, 1899, 1903.

Cape of Good Hope. Report of the Meteorological Commission, 1879, 1880, 1897, 1901-1904.

FamilySearch: Charles Collis Hammond. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/G3LH-N2Q/charles-collis-hammond-1859-1935 AND https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G5FL-VF4?view=index&personArk=/ark:/61903/1:1:7MRC-PNZM&action=view&cc=1779109

General directory and guide book to the Cape of Good Hope and its dependencies... (title varies), 1868, p. 230; 1869, p. 361.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Hammond, Charles Collis/Hammond, C.C.

Venter, R.J. Bibliography of regional meteorological literature. Vol. 1. Southern Africa, 1486-1948. Pretoria: Weather Bureau, 1949.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2024-10-07 10:19:19