Teles de Meneses (Guilherme)
Madeiran-born civil servant who made meteorological observations at Poiso and Areeiro, briefly administered Funchal municipality and defended Madeira as a health resort.
He was born in Madeira around 1855, but has long lived in Portugal, and is at present a retired accountant of the former Court of Audit (Tribunal de Contas), today the Higher Council for the Financial Administration of the State. Having come to this island in 1894, he lived for some time in the house at Poiso (‘resting place’) and then in the one at Areeiro (‘sand pit’), making some meteorological observations at both, the results of which he later published. He was also municipal administrator (administrador do concelho, the government's representative) of the municipality (concelho) of Funchal, but he did not remain long in this post because of a conflict with the governor, after he had forbidden the people, on 7 March 1896, to draw water from the fountains of João Denis (1921).
In the 15th series, no. 6 (1896) of the Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, he published a paper entitled A Madeira e o dr. Douglas, a reply to what this physician had written in a pamphlet on the advantages of Las Palmas over Madeira as a health resort for consumptives. The Areeiro meteorological station, which never came into operation, and the adjoining house were built under the direction of Guilherme Teles de Meneses. (1921)
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02Place
Places mentioned · 04
Abroad
- Fontes de João Dinis
Funchal. Fountains he barred the public from using in 1896.
Fountains he barred the public from using in 1896.
- Las Palmas
Spain. Rival health resort discussed in his memoir.
Las Palmas is a Canarian city and port. The first Madeiran sports team to play abroad went there in 1901, and the Funchal wireless station contacted its station during its first trials. It was promoted as a health resort rivalling or surpassing Madeira, and eight escaped political prisoners reached it.
- Pico do Areeiro
Câmara de Lobos. Site of his observations and of a meteorological post he built that never operated.
The Pico do Areeiro is a peak in Madeira's central mountains, listed at 1,796 m, with snow pits surviving nearby. It was the site of Guilherme Teles de Meneses's observations, of the 1895 mountain house and of the later, eventually abandoned, Areeiro meteorological station. It is also a breeding site of the boieiro (Puffinus anglorum).
- Poiso
Santa Cruz. House where he made meteorological observations.
The Poiso is an upland site in Madeira's interior, listed at about 1,390–1,414 m, on road 24 and near Chão das Feiteiras, the Alagoas plateau and the Areeiro. It was an interior astronomical station, and weather observations were made there, including by Guilherme Teles de Meneses and of the winds in 1894. The Ribeira de João Gomes and the Ribeira do Porto Novo rise in its area.
People
People mentioned · 02- Guilherme Teles de Menesesb. 1855
Retired accountant of the Tribunal de Contas, meteorological observer and administrator of the Funchal municipality in 1896.
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Physician who promoted Las Palmas over Madeira as a tuberculosis resort, answered by Teles de Meneses.