George Parker Bidder
1836–96
Barrister and astronomer. BA, Cambridge, 1858. Called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn, 1860; QC, 1874; bencher, 1876. Had a large practice at the Parliamentary Bar, 1880–96. Secretary to the Royal Commission on the Megaera, 1871–2. Amateur astronomer; worked at measurement of double stars and invented a position micrometer. Also a cryptographer, and possessed the faculty of visualising numbers.
Sources
Alum. Cantab.
ODNB s.v. Bidder, George Parker (1806–78)
Bibliography
Alum. Cantab.: Alumni Cantabrigienses. A biographical list of all known students, graduates and holders of office at the University of Cambridge, from the earliest times to 1900. Compiled by John Venn and J. A. Venn. 10 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1922–54.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
