A Sad Day

So Long and Farewell

(Photo Courtesy Victor Hasselblad AB)

It is with a heavy heart I have to inform you of the death of my

good friend and author of this website H.J.P. Arnold.

He passed away in hospital in the early hours of June 27th.

H.J.P. Arnold  1932 ~ 2006

Requiescat in Pace

(latin Rest in Peace)

Tributes to a great man

For my father...

who loved his family deeply, had so many talents - journalist and author,
PR and company director, historian and roman re-enactor, astronomer and
astrophotographer - and who had the wisdom to tell me to write instead of
dance. I will always miss you.

With my love, Ann-Helen

"A true friend and an English gentleman, you will be missed by all those who knew you"  -  Richard Bligh

It is with grief and a heavy heart that I write this.
Such a dear friend and gentleman, it was an honour to have known you
and your family.
Audrey and Helen, Maureen and My thoughts are with you and
I am going to miss my dear friend, tremendously.

Please pass on our message of condolences to Sir Patrick Moore, who we worked with on the Atlas.

"Duggy Baby" your wit and humour used to carry me through the hard times in my life
and I will never forget your words of encouragement when Maureen was nearly murdered
here in South Africa.

I salute your life, Sol Invictus, and may Jupiter and Icarus hold your hand.
Till we meet again my dear friend, my voyage here is going to be a bit lonely without you.
Ave, Douglas H.J.P. Arnold. - Bill Hollenbach

To the Arnold family and all who knew HJP Arnold.
A very sad loss indeed.


Everything great describes the Photographic Atlas of the Stars..
I'm lucky enough to have a copy which I received as a gift from
Kim Baguley (nee Hollenbach) about 2 yrs ago.. It went with me on
my first trip to the southern hemisphere last year and I never
leave home without it.. A work of art (better than any credit card).

No doubt these tribute pages will be filled when the sad news travels - Stephen Brady

Our sincere condolences to Audrey and Helen from all the partners of the
Cederberg Observatory in South Africa. We are proud to have known Douglas
and have been inspired to continue with the development of our observatory
which has a fine dark sky that he used for so many of the pictures in his
atlas. We will continue to welcome other astronomers and photographers,
just as Douglas would have wanted us to do. We will remember him - Cliff Turk

It is with great sadness we heard of the untimely death of our fine
and dear friend and benefactor Douglas Arnold. Douglas was a life
member of the Hampshire Astronomical Group and a very frequent visitor,
along with his wife Audrey, to our Observatory in Clanfield South Hampshire.
We will miss his 'talks' his enthusiasm, his knowledge his shear presence
and not least his fondness for Fish & Chips which he enjoyed so much on the
occasions we had our famous 'Fish & Chip' suppers at the Observatory.
We last enjoyed his company when he gave us a talk on his experiences of the
recent eclipse in the Middle East in April. I personally will treasure a
signed copy of Douglas's book on 'William Fox Talbot' he gave me for preparing
his 'PowerPoint' presentations, where Douglas quotes he felt the book was
his 'Magnum - Opus'. Indeed a fitting description of your life too Douglas.

Our heart felt sympathy goes out to Audrey and Family. We are all thinking of them.

- Richard Judd (President - Hampshire Astronomical Group - Clanfield Observatory)

To Dear Douglas,

Rest in peace....an astronomer of exellence and my centurion for many years

Sleep well.....and tell bacchus to save me a glass or two :)

Tempus omni revelat (time reveals all) - David Scanlan

It was with great sadness that I heard of the passing of Douglas Arnold.
Whilst we never met we communicated by email on many an occasion regarding
our joint interest the Sun. He has provided me assistance, support and a
good deal of humour over the years, and I will miss you my friend. To his
family who I do not know sincere commiserations. We have all lost a kind
and special friend. - Kevin Smith UK

I never met Douglas, though we crossed many mails during the years.
Once he told me concerning a solar image that I posted, "...I wish
I could see the Sun like that...", well Douglas, now you can see it
in all its splendor as we mortals never have seen it, enjoy in peace. - Eric Roel. (México)

I am so sorry to hear about his passing. I got to know Douglas through
many E-Mails and his participation in the DayStar Solar Filter User’s Group.
He was a great solar astronomer and a true gentleman. I will miss him very much. - Gordon Garcia

To Douglas You will be sadly missed. Your lectures to Solent Amateur
Astronomers were greatly appreciated. - Ken Medway

A true Roman to the core!!

Douglas helped, supported and guided Legio Secunda Augusta Roman
Living History Society for many years, first as a Centurion then
as a Senior Officer and always as a personal friend. Group members
who knew him would also like to send their condolences.

David, Carol, Molly, Glenn, Robin(Richardson) and members of Leg II Avg

It is with great sadness that I have heard of the death of a Douglas - a great man.
I was honoured to consider him a friend. He helped and supported me with my Roman
projects and was always there to give advice and support. My love and thoughts are
with Audrey and Family. - Shirley Laver

To a great officer and a gentleman, who gave great advice to all who listened.
Greatly missed by all at the colchesters, or as he called us those bloody auxiliaries.
Our thoughts are with all his family and friends. - Gus & Laura

Whenever you needed help, on so many different subjects, there it was,
by return, from what seemed to be an inexhaustable, encyclopaedic fund of
knowledge. A truly remarkable man who combined in one - most unsually
- the qualities of a boffin, a businessman and, once one was accepted,
a very loyal and supporting friend. To say he will be missed is a classic
understatement - he was the inspiration of much of what I have tried to do
- and one suspects that applies to many.

Our heartfelt sympathy to Audrey and the family, - Keith and Lizzie Perryman

I had the pleasure of working with Doug on the most meticulous photographic guide to the stars
ever: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ATLAS OF THE STARS (with Patrick Moore), in 1999. No one else could have
turned up at a publishers with a complete set of photographs of all the constellations,
brilliantly photographed from locations in both hemispheres. This was already many years work,
and was as close to perfection as I have ever seen.

I have also enjoyed his much earlier and totally wonderful history of Fox Talbot, again so painstaking,
and faultless in its execution. The man was a perfectionist, a very talented photographer, and a complete
professional, which is often the case among those involved with amateur astronomy! - Robin Rees

Centurio, here on a far frontier of the empire we bring you greetings
from your legionary Macrius and Auxilliary Titus.
May your jouney be peaceful, may you carry your memories of us.
May your Gods smile upon you and your family.
Your name will never be forgotten.
Salvete, Salvete, Salvete.

I have only just learnt of the sad news - my heartfelt sympathy to
Audrey and the rest of his family. I know how much he will be missed.
My first contact with Douglas was back in the seventies through his business
Space Frontiers when, as a teenager, I was an eager mail order customer.
Later in 1990, when by coincidence I moved to Havant, it was always a pleasure
to drop into 'mission control' for a chat, to benefit from his wealth of
knowledge on all things space and photographic, or to collect a particular
image that Douglas had kindly printed out or put on CD.
As Editor of the British Interplanetary Society's Spaceflight magazine,
I always enjoyed working with Douglas, either when he penned an article about
a particular aspect of space imagery, or when he provided original images for
the magazine to support a feature or news item.
His last and very fitting contribution to Spaceflight was only recently, in
the May 2006 issue, when he created the cover image to help illustrate an
article on growing food in space. The idea of combining a picture of freshly
grown lettuces with an image of the International Space Station came about
from the beautiful pictoral calendars that he had produced for the past several
years.
Douglas was a very special person. God bless.

Clive Simpson - Editor Spaceflight magazine

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