During the long voyage of the Beagle he had became aware of how important it was to be able to predict weather, and in 1854 he was appointed to the newly created post as Head of Meteorology at The Board of Trade (the Met. Office.) A terrible storm of 1859 led to the sinking of a famous ship and encouraged Fitzroy develop an idea for predicting weather by using charts. He gathered information from ships via the newly invented electric telegraph, which made communication swift enough people could be warned in good time that storms were on the way.

In 1863 Fitzroy published his famous work The Weather Book to explain the science of meteorology. The Town Library has a copy of this and also of his account of the voyages of the Beagle.

Admiral Robert Fitzroy. From Portraits of Men of Eminence, Vol. 3 p.53