Thomas George Bonney

“ His field work was admirable in quality, for he was no less patient than accurate in unravelling a complicated district — one of those men, in short, who lay the foundations on which his successors can build, and whose services to British geology are more lasting than showy. ”

“ As may be inferred, he was often involved in controversy, but he seemed to enjoy an intellectual battle, the stress of which never ruffled the course of friendship for more than a moment, so that his death, in the full vigour of his powers, was not only a loss to science but also to numerous friends. ”

“ Going into business as a house decorator, he devoted every spare minute to his favourite study, exploring the country round Liverpool, and pushing his researches into North Wales and Shropshire. He formed a large and valuable collection of fossils, of which those from the Trias downwards have been acquired by the British Museum of Natural History, and the remainder by the Liverpool University College. ”

“ Gradually Prestwich's interests concentrated on geology, and he began to study the coalfield of Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, which he described in two papers read before the Geological Society of London. The second of them at once established his reputation as a geologist. While in London he settled down to that close study, first of the Eocene and then of the Pliocene deposits, on which were founded his most important contributions to science. ”

“ As a geologist Hicks was singularly acute, both in eye and mind. The more difficult a problem, the greater its attraction for him. But he was sometimes a little too quick in publishing his conclusions ”

“ In 1872 he found himself able to retire from business, and thus to indulge the desire of his life, and devote his whole time to scientific studies. But in June 1874, on the death of John Phillips (1800-1874) [q. v.] , he was offered the chair of geology at Oxford, which after some hesitation he accepted. It was late in life to begin to teach, and Prestwich was not naturally a facile speaker or lecturer, but he threw himself vigorously into his new duties and the cause of scientific education in the university. ”

“ He made a special study of the corals and echinids, taking also much interest in the ophiurids, sponges, and protozoa, regarding all questions from the point of view not only of the philosophical zoologist, but also of one who applied the distribution of species to elucidate ancient physical geography. He described the fossil coral fauna of Malta, Java, Hindustan, Australia, Tasmania, and the West Indies, the echinids of Sind, and of other countries. ”

“ He disliked literary composition, so that his scientific papers are not numerous, about fifteen in all, mostly contributed to the 'Geological Magazine,' and he published a ' Catalogue of the Pleistocene Vertebrata in the Collection of Sir Antonio Brady; 'but his extensive knowledge was ever at the service of others, for he was one of those men who cared more for the advancement of science than of himself. ”

“ Geology was now almost laid aside for meteorology, in which science he became so distinguished that in the last-named year he was appointed meteorological reporter to the government of Bengal, and was placed in charge of an office to give storm warnings as well as make observations in the presidency. ”

“ Hicks's eyes proved singularly acute in detecting even obscure traces of organisms, and before long he found a fossil in the hitherto barren red flaggy rocks of the Cambrian system near St. David's. This (a 'lingulella') was described by the fellow-workers in a communication to the Geological Society in 1867. Stimulated by its reception and a grant from the British Association, Hicks succeeded during the next year in discovering as many as thirty species in the lower Cambrian beds. ”

“ After passing with distinction through King's College, London, he joined the staff of the Geological Survey in 1842, and was set to work in Radnorshire. From this county he was shortly afterwards trans- ferred to the Cotteswold district, which he examined up to Bath, and afterwards surveyed a large part of Dorset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, with the Isle of Wight, besides some of the Wealden area, Berkshire, and Essex, rising ultimately in 1872 to the position of director for England and Wales. ”

“ PRESTWICH, Sir JOSEPH (1812–1896) , geologist, the eldest surviving son of Joseph Prestwich, a wine merchant in London, and of Catherine, daughter of Edward Blakeway of Broseley, was born at Pensbury, Clapham, on 12 March 1812. He was descended from an old Lancashire family, which lived, till the troubles of the civil war, at Hulme Hall, on the banks of the Irwell, now part of Manchester. The last owner, Thomas Prestwich, was created a baronet on 25 April 1644 by Charles I for services to the royal cause, and it was believed that Joseph Prestwich was in reality heir to the title. ”

“ McCOY, Sir FREDERICK (1823–1899) , naturalist and geologist, son of Simon McCoy, a Dublin physician, was born in that city in 1823. After passing through a course of medical study there and at Cambridge, and before reaching the age when he could begin to practise, he was diverted to natural science by undertaking the arrangement of the collections of the Geological Society of Ireland and of the Royal Irish Academy. ”

“ In 1860 he removed to Blackheath, thus obtaining more time for science, and devoting himself especially to the study of corals.
More complete freedom was obtained by election to the professorship of geology at King's College in 1870, of which he became a fellow in the following year, and shortly afterwards he was appointed professor of geology at Cooper's Hill College. In 1877 he settled in London near Regent's Park, residing there till 1883, when he removed to Gunnersbury. ”

“ After 1862, when he lost part of his right hand through a gun accident, he was prevented from undertaking difficult excursions, but he did not abandon the Alps, for he was a lover of their flowers and scenery, and he occasionally undertook more distant journeys, visiting South America more than once, and making a tour of the world. ”

“ Sir Richard John Griffith [q. v.] then engaged him to make the palaeontological investigations required for the 'Geological Map of Ireland.' The results of these studies were published in two volumes, one entitled 'Synopsis of the Carboniferous Limestone Fossils in Ireland,' 1844, the other 'Synopsis of the Silurian Fossils of Ireland,' 1846, and during the later part of the time thus employed he was a member of the regular staff of the Survey. ”

“ He lived to receive one more recognition of his services, for on New Year's day 1896 he was gazetted a knight. He died on 23 June 1896 and was buried in Shoreham churchyard. Lady Prestwich, herself well versed in geology and his constant helpmate, survived to write a memoir of her husband, which appeared in June 1899, but in September she also, after long ill-health, passed away at Darent Hulme.
As a geologist Prestwich's strength lay in stratigraphy. There his work is masterly. ”

“ Besides the distinctions already mentioned Croll three times received complimentary awards of funds from the Geological Society of London. He wrote three books: 'The Philosophy of Theism,' 1857; 'Climate and Time,' 1875; and 'The Philosophic Basis of Evolution,' 1890, besides about ninety separate papers, the majority on questions in physical geology, such as ocean currents, climate, and the causes of the glacial epoch. ”

“ At the age of fourteen he went to sea, and for the next four years was in ships sailing to the East Indies, China, and South America. Then he began to study science, and in 1858 was appointed an assistant to the mineral department of the British Museum, working under Professor Story Maskelyne. ”

“ In 1871 he obtained a scholarship in natural science at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he more especially studied geology and biology, obtaining a first class in the natural science tripos of 1874. ”

“ McCoy throughout his long life was the most indefatigable of men. He lived very plainly, and did much of his work between ten at night and three in the morning, not requiring more than five hours' sleep. ”

“ CROLL, JAMES (1821–1890) , physical geologist, was born on 2 Jan. 1821, the second of four sons of David Croll, a stone-mason of Little Whitefield, Perthshire, and his wife, Janet Ellis of Elgin. The boy went to the village school, and his first impulse to real study came, when about eleven years old, from accidentally falling in with the 'Penny Magazine.' After an apprenticeship to a wheelwright at Collace he got work at Banchory as a joiner. ”

“ With many men such duties would have practically put an end to original research, but Carpenter's enthusiasm and indomitable energy enabled him to carry out a remarkable amount. The rich collection of echinodermata brought back by the Challenger in 1876 proved an additional stimulus, and from that time onwards to his death a constant stream of papers flowed from his pen on echinoderms, and especially on crinoid morphology. ”

“ In the summer of 1896 he had a paralytic stroke, and died on 19 Aug. at his residence, Boars Hill, near Oxford. He was twice married: in 1866 to Miss Mary Marsden, from the neighbourhood of Sheffield, who died in 1882; and in 1883 to Miss W. M. Armstrong, a native of Clifton, who survived him. One son and two daughters were the issue of the first marriage, and a son and a daughter of the second, all of whom survived their father. ”

“ In 1886 he was elected F.R.S., and in 1890 was president of the section of geology at the Leeds meeting of the British Association. His strength in this science lay in field work and in certain departments of physical geology where his mathematical knowledge was especially helpful. ”

“ As his health was suffering from such continuous strain, he determined to have a breathing place in the country, so he began to build near Shoreham, Kent, in 1864, Darent Hulme, a quaintly ornamented and very attractive house, in the garden of which he found a lifelong pleasure. ”

“ But it injured his business, and in the summer of 1850 he left Elgin for Park, and early in 1852 he opened a temperance hotel at Blair- gowrie, making much of the furniture himself. That, however, was not a success, and in 1853 he became an agent for the Safety Life Assurance Society, residing at Glasgow, at Edinburgh, and then at Leicester. ”

“ In 1893 long years of labour began to tell upon even his vigorous constitution, and he resigned his posts at McGill University on 31 July, but was at once nominated as Emeritus principal, professor, and honorary curator of the Redpath Museum. ”

“ Then came the news that a human jawbone, supposed to be contemporary, had been found in the gravel at Moulin Quignon, Abbeville. Prestwich went with some English experts in 1863 to examine the specimen, and afterwards attended a conference on the subject at Paris, when they maintained the jaw to be much more recent than the gravel in which it had indubitably been found. The questions thus opened up engaged Prestwich's attention to the last, some of his latest papers being on certain flints found by Mr. ”

“ Calcutta, 1877, 4to. 5. 'Rudiments of Physical Geography for the use of Indian Schools,' Calcutta, 1873, 8vo; 6th edit. London, 1878, 8vo. 6. 'The Winds of Northern India,' 1873, 8vo. 7. 'A Practical Guide to the Climates and Weather of India, Ceylon, Burma,' London, 1889, 8vo. 8. 'An Elementary Geography of India, Burma, and Cevlon,' London, 1890, 8vo. He was elected F.G.S. in 1862, F.R.S. in 1880, was president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1884-5, and an honorary member of several foreign meteorological societies. ”