Clement Linley Wragge was one of life's eccentrics. He was born in Worcestershire in England in 1852, the son of a solicitor, and it was the family's intention that he should follow in his father's footsteps.
Wragge, however, had more adventurous ideas and ran away to sea. With a good basic education, he learned a great deal about navigation, and acquired an abiding interest in astronomy and meteorology.
After many adventures he settled finally in Australia, where his prolific activity as an amateur meteorologist attracted the attention of the authorities. As a result, in January 1887 he was appointed government meteorologist for the state of Queensland. He set about the job with gusto, and later that same year began issuing weather charts for Australia, together with forecasts for each of the colonies and also for New Zealand.
Wragge was a lanky, gawky, red-headed man with large feet, always encased in highly-polished Blucher boots; he was also uncompromising and unconventional, and not afraid of making enemies. One biographer describes him nicely: "A tactless attitude towards the government meteorologists of other states, together with his interstate forecasting activities, had not endeared Wragge in professional circles, and to this was added a private life not entirely in keeping with Victorian ideals."
One of Wragge's more bizarre adventures involved his fascination with an idea dating from the 16th century that the discharge of artillery pieces could be used to suppress hail or to bring rain to drought-stricken areas. The concept had enjoyed renewed interest in Europe around the turn of the century, and in 1902 Wragge set up a series of six such guns at Charleville in Queensland, with the object of breaking a persistent drought.
On September 26th, 97 years ago yesterday, he thought the clouds would be suitable for rainmaking, and the guns were fired at one-minute intervals. The project, however, was an abject failure, and the resultant adverse publicity probably cost Wragge his chances of becoming the first director of the soon-to-be-established Australian Federal Bureau of Meteorology.
But there may have been another reason. Wragge is remembered in Australia as probably the first meteorologist in the world to give names to tropical cyclones. He started with letters from the Greek alphabet, and then progressed through Greek and Roman mythology to the use of feminine names. And finally he began using the names of politicians, some particularly troublesome cyclones being given the names of individuals with whom Wragge himself had had some difference of opinion.
In the list for 1902, the Christian names of several eminent federal parliamentary leaders were apparent.