Richard S. Scorer

In the general elections of 1970 and 1979, Scorer was the Labour Party candidate for the constituency of Esher but was defeated each time. He was an alderman of the London Borough of Merton from 1970 to 1977 and was elected a trustee of Wimbledon Common for four years. In addition to being the author of 16 books, he was a photographer, a cyclist, a marathon runner, a mountaineer, a bird watcher, a carpenter and talented luthier.

Richard Scorer married Joan, whom he had met in Cambridge and they had three daughters: Beatrice, Margaret and Valerie. Joan died of cancer in 1964 and he remarried later with Margaret, with whom he had two sons, Jason and Richard, and a daughter, Josephine. Scorer and his wife were also foster parents for two children during the 1970s. There is a wooden memorial bench dedicated to Richard Segar Scorer on the New Precipice Walk above Penmaenpool in North Wales. It provides a spectacular view across the Mawddach Estuary to the mountain Cadair Idris. The inscription describes his love of watching the clouds form over the mountain and also carries a quotation from 'The Cloud' by Shelley.

Scorer went afterward to the Department of Mathematics where he became professor of theoretical mechanics in 1962, and played an important role in the growth of the group on applied mathematics.

Scorer also wrote articles with Frank Ludlam on the cumulus lifecycle. Their views were in conflict with those of the American Joanne Simpson which led to an exchange of letters and a meeting in 1954 for a significant advancement of knowledge in this field.

In 1949, he published an article titled "Theory of Waves in the Lee of Mountains" where he developed the mathematics of this air flow, in particular trapped waves that produce stable oscillations. From this paper was extracted the 'Scorer parameter' for the atmospheric gravity waves over a mountain barrier:

Richard Scorer was elected to the Royal Meteorological Society in December 1949 and was president from 1986 to 1988. He became Honorary Fellow of the Society in 1992, the highest form of recognition for an outstanding contribution to the Society and meteorology.

In 1941, during World War II, he joined the UK Met Office as a junior forecaster, first for RAF Bomber Command and the Supply Command then he was transferred to Gibraltar to do weather forecasting for North Africa. He was commissioned as a flying officer in January 1943.

Richard Segar Scorer (30 August 1919 – 21 May 2011) was a British meteorologist. He was a contributor to the theory on mountain waves. Scorer also worked on the cloud physics and his exchanges with the American meteorologist Joanne Simpson helped to better understand the formation of cumulus clouds.

Richard Scorer was born in Lincoln, England, in 1919. His father was a senior partner in a firm of solicitors, and later clerk to Lindsey County Council. His mother was a lecturer at Bishop Grosseteste College, a teacher training college. A brother was architect Sam Scorer, and like him went to Repton School. From his youth, he showed great aptitude for mathematics and won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge where he did his undergraduate studies.