To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Office, Laura FitzRoy presented a portrait of her father. This was reported at the meeting of the Meteorological Council on 19 October 1904, but the anniversary otherwise passed largely unnoticed. FitzRoy's era had long since passed. However, another reason for the passing of the anniversary with so little attention paid to it could have been preoccupation with the report of an inquiry published in 1904.

Yet Another Inquiry

The impending closure of the Ben Nevis and Fort William observatories was the subject of questions asked in the House of Commons in 1902. For example, John Dewar asked the First Lord of the Treasury on 28 July whether the Government, in giving an annual grant of £15,300 to the Office, would make it a condition that these observatories “be maintained in a state of efficiency, or consider the advisability of making an additional contribution to the Meteorological Council towards the expense of properly maintaining them”. The Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, replied, saying that he had been advised “it would not be desirable to impose conditions on the Meteorological Council or to inquire into this or that particular observatory”. He was not prepared, he said, to answer the part of the question relating to an additional contribution.