Adolph Friedrich Lindemann (13 May 1846 – 25 August 1931) was a British engineer, businessman, and amateur astronomer of German origin. He was involved in theTransatlantic telegraph cable project.
Lindemann was born in thePalatinate to aRoman Catholic family established inAlsace-Lorraine under the Comte de Lindemann, who had married into the Cyprien-Fabre shipping family. Lindemann married Olga Noble (1851 – c. 1927), herself heiress to a wealthyNew London, Connecticut, engineering family of British origin, and the widow of a banker named Davidson by whom she had produced three children.[1][2] Olga was reputedly "vivacious and beautiful".[1]
Lindemann had raised capital in theCity of London to construct the waterworks inSpeyer andPirmasens; he was also involved in theTransatlantic telegraph cable project. He moved to England in the 1860s and becamenaturalised a British subject.[1] The couple were wealthy, having an annual income of around £20,000 by 1914 (£1.5 million at 2003 prices[3]). Olga inherited a mansion nearSidmouth,[2] Devon, so her husband took the opportunity to establish alaboratory and astronomicalobservatory there. On Olga's death, Lindemann donated the observatory to theUniversity of Exeter.[1] Lindemann was elected a fellow of theRoyal Astronomical Society on 14 February 1873.[4] He was also elected a fellow of theRoyal Meteorological Society on 19 March 1884.[5]
The couple had a daughter and three sons, the second of whom,Frederick, was to become a famed physicist, and World War II adviser toSir Winston Churchill. The youngest brother, Septimus, became something of a playboy on theFrench Riviera but became a notable agent for the intelligence services in World War II.[1] Adolph's only daughter (he had two stepdaughters by his wife's previous marriage), Linda, became a short story writer and playwright, writing under a pseudonym to avoid family disapproval. One of her plays,The Man in the Case, was censored. Her granddaughter is novelistSalley Vickers, and her great-grandson Rupert Kingfisher, the children's writer of Madame Pamplemousse.[citation needed] Olga was a Protestant and insisted on the children being raised in theAnglican Church.[1]
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