Talk:Basil John Mason

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[edit] Identification

(Copied from Wikipedia talk:Redirect)

That Basil John Mason is the same John Mason who received the Royal Medal award needs to be determined via a valid source. If we have a valid source (note: I'm not doubting you, I'm simply building an argument), then the Royal Medal table most certainly can be changed to list Basil John Mason instead of John Mason. It probably needs be listed along the lines of Basil John Mason (under the name John Mason) and most certainly the source should be provided, but we don't have to maintain an exact copy of the Royal Society's list if it's inaccurate (or misleading if you prefer to look at it that way). -- JLaTondre 01:24, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

No worries about doubting it. I wasn't sure myself for a while, but the following links convinced me:

Royal Society's Rumford Medal pages - "1972 Basil John Mason. In recognition of his distinguished contributions to meteorology, particularly the physics of clouds."
Royal Society's Royal Medal pages - "1991 John Mason, in recognition of his distinguished research on cloud physics and, as Director-General of the Meteorological Office, his broadening and strengthening of research in meteorology in the UK."
Royal Society's Rutherford Memorial Lecture pages - "1990 Basil John Mason; Canada"
Royal Society past officers - Treasurer, 1976, "Sir Basil John Mason"
Institute of Physics Chree Medal - "1965 Basil John Mason"
International Catalogue of Sources listing for "Mason, John, Sir (Basil), 1923-" (note the brackets around 'Basil').
National Portrait Gallery page on a portait of "Sir (Basil) John Mason (1923-), Director General of the Meteorological Office." (again, note the brackets around 'Basil').
Royal Meteorological Society history page has a list of presidents including "Sir John Mason CB DSc FRS 1968-70"
Royal Meteorological Society honorary members page has "Sir John Mason".

Just to add to the confusion, the Royal Meteorological Society recently instituted a "Mason Gold Medal", probably fully aware that the 'James Mason Gold Medal' and the 'Numa Mason Gold Medal' already exist. But did they really have to award the first '(John) Mason Gold Medal' to an unrelated guy called Paul Mason?? :-) Carcharoth 02:28, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

In the scientific literature, he is known as B. J. Mason, and a website on meteorological history says: "Along with Academician Federov, Dr Bob White of the US and Dr B. J. (later Sir John) Mason of the UK, he [Gibbs] played a vital role in modernising the World Meteorological Organization in the 1960s." - that is enough to convince me. I'm copying this to Talk:Basil John Mason. Carcharoth 02:45, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

(end quote - copied over by Carcharoth 02:50, 13 February 2007 (UTC))

Some more: Amazon book cover showing the name "B. J. Mason", plus another Amazon book cover (for a different book) showing the author as "Sir John Mason". Carcharoth 02:59, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Ah! Bingo! Looking inside the front cover for that first book cover link gives the publishing information and author details: "Mason, B. J. (Basil John) 1923-". Is that reliable enough? Also, this British Library Catalogue entry equates Sir John Mason with B. J. Mason, but this entry seems to imply Sir John Mason was born in 1954 (surely not the same Mason who was president of the RMS from 1968-1970). Strange. Surely a mistake there in the British Library entry, unless they mean something else by "1954". Carcharoth 03:14, 13 February 2007 (UTC)