16 Facts About Charles Close

Charles Close was Director General of the Ordnance Survey from 1911 to 1922.

Charles Close was born Charles Frederick Close and changed his surname to Arden-Close in 1938 so as to comply with a bequest.

Charles Close was born in Jersey, the eldest of the eleven children of Major-General Frederick Close and his second wife Lydia Ann Stevens.

Charles Close attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich where military engineering and artillery were taught.

In 1889 Charles Close was posted to the survey of India where he carried out topographic work in Burma and triangulation in Mandalay.

Charles Close led a small surveying unit in the Second Boer War, and returned to Chatham in 1902 to become chief instructor of surveying at the School of Military Engineering.

Charles Close served as head of MO4, the Geographical Section of the General Staff, at the War Office until 1911, when he handed over to Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Coote Hedley.

In 1911 Charles Close was appointed Director General of the Ordnance Survey, a post he held until 1922.

Charles Close introduced more rigorous scientific methods at the Ordnance Survey and proceeded with a second geodetic levelling of the United Kingdom.

Charles Close was intent on producing one-inch maps of revolutionary appearance, the first of these for Killarney district used colour printing and precise printing methods.

Charles Close married in 1913 and had two sons and a daughter.

Charles Close was knighted in 1918, in recognition of the Ordnance Survey's efforts during World War I during which over 30 million maps were produced.

Charles Close was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1919.

Charles Close was a long-serving Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and in 1927 was awarded their Victoria Gold Medal and elected President.

Charles Close changed his surname to Arden-Charles Close by deed poll in August 1938.

Charles Close died in Winchester registration district of Hampshire on 19 December 1952, aged 87.