William Roy

E552790

William Roy was an 18th-century Scottish military engineer and surveyor whose pioneering mapping work laid the foundations for Britain’s Ordnance Survey.

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Label Occurrences
William Roy canonical 2

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Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Scottish person
cartographer
military engineer
person
surveyor
birthDate 1726-05-04
birthPlace Carluke
Lanarkshire
Scotland
burialPlace St Paul’s, Covent Garden
centuryOfActivity 18th century
commissionedBy Duke of Cumberland
countryOfCitizenship Kingdom of Great Britain
deathDate 1790-07-01
deathPlace England
London
linked to: London, England
designed baseline measurement on Hounslow Heath
electedTo Fellow of the Royal Society
electionToRoyalSocietyYear 1767
employer Board of Ordnance
British Army
fieldOfWork cartography
geodesy
surveying
gender male
honouredBy Royal Society of Edinburgh (posthumous recognition)
influenced creation of the Ordnance Survey
initiated Anglo-French survey to link Greenwich and Paris observatories
knownFor Anglo-French geodetic survey
Military Survey of Scotland
foundational work for the Ordnance Survey
pioneering large-scale mapping of Great Britain
language English
legacy considered the father of the Ordnance Survey
memberOf Royal Society
militaryRank Major-General
name William Roy
nationality Scottish
notableProjectLocation England
Hounslow Heath
Scotland
occupation cartographer
military engineer
surveyor
participatedIn Jacobite rising of 1745 campaigns (as surveyor)
produced Military Survey of Scotland 1747–1755
residence London
linked to: London, England

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Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.