Robert Cecil Hayes

Robert Cecil Hayes

Some people have bursts of enthusiasm for someone or something then drop them for someone or something else. There was nothing fickle about [Bill Hayes]. All his loves and interests were intense, constant and lifelong. His entire life revolved around his observatories, his music, his family, and his home. The rest of the world hardly existed for him.

Margaret Hayes remembers her husband of 45 years. From Margaret Hayes, In Spite of His Time: a biography of RC Hayes, 1987, p115

Robert Cecil Hayes was named after the British Prime Minister of the time, but at home he was always called Bill. He grew up a shy, reserved boy who never found much to interest him at school, but two events set him studying on his own: seeing Halley’s comet and hearing the great organ in Christchurch Cathedral. He became engrossed in astronomy, and he learned to play the organ. Both remained occupations and consolations for him all his life.

Hayes enrolled at Victoria University College for a science degree, but was more interested in his astronomy and his music, and failed his examinations. Thus, in 1920, he found some astronomical work: he began as a cadet in the Hector Observatory in Kelburn. The observatory’s main role was to provide accurate time signals and it still took regular star sightings – timing the transit of particular stars across the north-south meridian line – to correct the time of its ageing pendulum clocks.

When Hayes began work at the observatory, it had just taken over the operation of Wellington’s only seismograph, and when he was assigned to maintain it and keep the records, he found a new passion: seismology. By the time of the Hawke’s Bay earthquake in 1931, he was sufficiently expert in the field to join his boss, government astronomer and seismologist Dr Charles Adams, in writing the definitive report on the earthquake. Hayes went on to analyse his seismological records more closely, revealing patterns in the location and frequency of earthquakes in the New Zealand region that subsequently provided useful evidence for both theoretical scientists and practical engineers.

After Adams retired in 1936, Hayes led the observatory in an ‘acting’ capacity; not having any degree, he was considered unqualified to become director. This continued for 12 years before he was finally appointed in 1948. Hayes went on to organise a massive effort by the observatory in astronomical recording for the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58 and retired exhausted in 1960.

Hayes never pushed himself forward and the value of his work was not appreciated until later. In his seismological analyses he refrained from theoretical speculations, but, in the 1960s, others were able to use his findings to explain the structure of the New Zealand region in plate tectonic terms. He gained belated recognition with the award of the Hector Medal in 1975, not long before he died.

By Ross Galbreath

Medals and awards

Hector Medal 1975

Further reading

Robert Hayes biography – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website

Margaret Hayes, In Spite of His Time: a biography of RC Hayes, NZ Geophysical Society, 1987

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