10 Facts About William Mudge

William Mudge was an English artillery officer and surveyor, born in Plymouth, an important figure in the work of the Ordnance Survey.

William Mudge was appointed in 1791 to the Ordnance Trigonometrical Survey, of which he was promoted to be director on the death of Colonel Edward Williams in 1798.

William Mudge was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year.

Around 1800 Dunnose was taken as a base point for a triangulation of Great Britain, in which Mudge measured a section of the meridional arc running up into Yorkshire.

William Mudge was promoted brevet major on 25 September 1801, regimental major 14 September 1803, and lieutenant-colonel 20 July 1804.

William Mudge was appointed in addition, on 29 July 1809, by John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, to be lieutenant-governor of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich; and when in 1810 it was decided to move the Indian cadets to Addiscombe Military Seminary, Mudge was appointed public examiner to the new college.

William Mudge took pains to see that the Woolwich and the Addiscombe cadets were trained in surveying and topographical drawing, and placed them before leaving college under Robert Dawson of the Ordnance Survey for a course of practical study.

William Mudge superintended the general arrangement of the work, and in some cases took the actual measurement.

On 4 June 1813 William Mudge was promoted brevet-colonel, and on 20 December 1814 regimental colonel.

William Mudge left a daughter, two sons in the royal engineers, one in the Royal Artillery, and one in the Royal Navy.