Background
Pogson was born in Oxford, England, the eldest daughter of Norman Pogson by his first marriage to Elizabeth Jane Ambrose (died 1869). Role of her father.
Pogson was born in Oxford, England, the eldest daughter of Norman Pogson by his first marriage to Elizabeth Jane Ambrose (died 1869). Role of her father.
She was likely named after the River Isis, the part of the River Thames that flows through Oxford. Norman Pogson was an assistant at Radcliffe Observatory and then at Hartwell Observatory. The asteroid was named by Professor Manuel John Johnson, director of the Radcliffe Observatory, presumably in honor of Pogson"s daughter Isis.
lieutenant could also have been a reference to the River Isis.
She also worked in India as her father"s assistant. She was given the post of computer at the observatory in 1873 with the salary of 150 rupees, equivalent to a "cook or coach-man", and worked there for 25 years until she retired with a pension of 250 rupees in 1898, when the observatory closed.
She served as the meteorological superintendent and reporter for the Madras government from 1881. Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pogson was the first woman to attempt to be elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, being nominated (unsuccessfully) by her father in 1886.
Although the society had elected a few women as honorary members, all the fellows had been male up to this time.
Her nomination was withdrawn when two attorneys deemed female fellows illegal under the provisions of the society"s royal charter dating from 1831, which referred to fellows only as he. She was successfully nominated in 1920 by Oxford professor H. H. Turner, five years after the Royal Astronomical Society first opened its doors to women. The couple returned to England, living in Bournemouth and then London.
Pogson died in Croydon.