R. GARDNER 1851-1931 was bora in Glasgow where he served a clock-making apprenticeship and a second in London in 1871 in watch-making with Troy Thomas.ln 1875, jointly with his brother John Taylor, he inherited from his father the horological parts and materials business, Gardner & MacGregor. He and his brother continued with this business until 1878 when it was dissolved as Robert departed for a learning tour of horological centres in France, Switzerland and America. From 1880 to 1883 he was in business in the Glasgow suburb of Bearsden during wich period he began writing for the "Horological Journal." The year after his marriage in 1885, he moved to London settling at 20 Lloyd Square as a chronometermaker. In 1897-8 he came first in the Greenwich chronometer trials with his no 5/4162. He devoted great attention to the study of middle temperature error and auxiliary devices to correct it, as well as to the form of balance springs. He was the only maker ever to successfully imitate Loseby's glass thermometric compensation with mercury. He also developed his own variation on Kullberg's auxiliary. hl constant contact with leading chronometrists such as Paul Ditisheim and Charles Edouard Guillaume throughout the world, Gardner was also particularly well informed thanks to his extensive horological and technical library which after his death formed the basis of Malcolm Gardner's wellknown horological bookselling business.