William Boyd Dawkins
Encyclopedia
Professor Sir William Boyd Dawkins, FRS, KBE (26 December 1837 – 15 January 1929) was a British geologist
and archaeologist. He was a member of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Curator of the Manchester Museum
and Professor of Geology at Owens College, Manchester
. He is noted for his research on fossils and the antiquity of man. He was involved in many projects including a tunnel under the Humber
, a Channel Tunnel
attempt and the proving of coal under Kent
.
Vicarage in Montgomeryshire
on 26 December 1837. He attracted attention at age five by collecting fossils from the local colliery spoil heaps. Soon after this, his family moved to Fleetwood
in Lancashire
, where he attended Rossall School
. He again attracted attention by adding fossils from the local boulder clay
to his earlier collection. After leaving school, he attended Jesus College, Oxford
graduating with a second in Classics and a first in Natural Sciences.
On leaving Oxford University in 1862, he joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain where he spent the next seven years working on the areas of Kent and the Thames Valley. In 1869, he was elected a member of the Geological Society and appointed Curator of the Manchester Museum
, a position he held until 1890. In 1870, he took a further appointment as a lecturer at Owens College, Manchester. eventually becoming the first Professor of Geology in 1874.
Dawkins became involved with the Manchester Geological and Mining Society and was its President on three occasions: 1874–75, 1876–77 and 1886–87. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
in 1867 and acted as President of the Anthropological Section of the British Association in 1882 and the Geological Section in 1888. Dawkins was knight
ed for "services to geology" in 1919. He died in 1929, aged 91.
and Calais
areas, however the project was abandoned due to lack of money.
In 1886, the South Eastern Railway
Company approached Dawkins asking him if his Channel Tunnel work has shown any coal under Kent. The finding of coal under Kent would have given the company great financial benefits. Together with Henry Willett and the French geologist Pigou, Dawkins presented a paper in 1887 proving the existence of coal under the Cretaceous
deposits of Kent.
. In 1859 he moved to Somerset
to study classics with the vicar of Wookey
. On hearing of the discovery of bones by local workmen he led excavations in the area of the hyena den at Wookey Hole Caves. He also excavated Aveline's Hole
, expanding its entrance and naming it after his mentor William Talbot Aveline
. His work led to the discovery of the first evidence for use by Palaeolithic man in the Caves of the Mendip Hills
.
He spent a great deal of time researching in Derbyshire
, especially at Creswell Crags
and Windy Knoll near Castleton. At Windy Knoll (NGR SK126830), he proved the existence of exotic animals that lived in England prior to the ice ages. With Rooke Pennington and J. Tym, he discovered bones from bison
, hyena
, bear
and a large cat, possibly a relative of the Sabre Tooth Tiger. The bison bones were more recently dated at 37 300bp (OxA – 4579). Many of the finds are located in the museums of Buxton, Derbyshire and Manchester.
industry. He lobbied hard to get a better education system for miners similar to the ones established in Germany. He donated undisclosed amounts of money to this cause.
Among his other donations was one to the Manchester Museum
. The museum wanted to build an extension and started an appeal. The appeal raised £1015 2s 9d, of which Dawkins donated £500.
Later in life he fought for compensation for people whose homes had been affected by subsidence from the salt mines and workings near Northwich
, Cheshire
.
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
and archaeologist. He was a member of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Curator of the Manchester Museum
Manchester Museum
The Manchester Museum is owned by the University of Manchester. Sited on Oxford Road at the heart of the university's group of neo-Gothic buildings, it provides access to about six million items from every continent and serves both as a resource for academic research and teaching and as a regional...
and Professor of Geology at Owens College, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. He is noted for his research on fossils and the antiquity of man. He was involved in many projects including a tunnel under the Humber
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank...
, a Channel Tunnel
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...
attempt and the proving of coal under Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
.
Background
Dawkins was born at ButtingtonButtington
Buttington is a village in Powys, Wales. The Montgomery Canal passes through the village.-The Battle of Buttington:This battle took place in 893 AD between a combined Welsh and Mercian army, which defeated Danish invaders who had marched from Essex....
Vicarage in Montgomeryshire
Montgomeryshire
Montgomeryshire, also known as Maldwyn is one of thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. Montgomeryshire is still used as a vice-county for wildlife recording...
on 26 December 1837. He attracted attention at age five by collecting fossils from the local colliery spoil heaps. Soon after this, his family moved to Fleetwood
Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a town within the Wyre district of Lancashire, England, lying at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 26,840 people at the 2001 Census. It forms part of the Greater Blackpool conurbation. The town was the first planned community of the Victorian era...
in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, where he attended Rossall School
Rossall School
Rossall School is a British, co-educational, independent school, between Cleveleys and Fleetwood, Lancashire. Rossall was founded in 1844 by St. Vincent Beechey as a sister school to Marlborough College which had been founded the previous year...
. He again attracted attention by adding fossils from the local boulder clay
Boulder clay
Boulder clay, in geology, is a deposit of clay, often full of boulders, which is formed in and beneath glaciers and ice-sheets wherever they are found, but is in a special sense the typical deposit of the Glacial Period in northern Europe and North America...
to his earlier collection. After leaving school, he attended Jesus College, Oxford
Jesus College, Oxford
Jesus College is one of the colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street...
graduating with a second in Classics and a first in Natural Sciences.
On leaving Oxford University in 1862, he joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain where he spent the next seven years working on the areas of Kent and the Thames Valley. In 1869, he was elected a member of the Geological Society and appointed Curator of the Manchester Museum
Manchester Museum
The Manchester Museum is owned by the University of Manchester. Sited on Oxford Road at the heart of the university's group of neo-Gothic buildings, it provides access to about six million items from every continent and serves both as a resource for academic research and teaching and as a regional...
, a position he held until 1890. In 1870, he took a further appointment as a lecturer at Owens College, Manchester. eventually becoming the first Professor of Geology in 1874.
Dawkins became involved with the Manchester Geological and Mining Society and was its President on three occasions: 1874–75, 1876–77 and 1886–87. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
in 1867 and acted as President of the Anthropological Section of the British Association in 1882 and the Geological Section in 1888. Dawkins was knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
ed for "services to geology" in 1919. He died in 1929, aged 91.
Kent
In 1882, following from his work with the Geological Survey, Dawkins was appointed as the official surveyor by the Channel Tunnel Committee. He made a geological survey of the English and French coasts along the DoverDover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
and Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
areas, however the project was abandoned due to lack of money.
In 1886, the South Eastern Railway
South Eastern Railway (UK)
The South Eastern Railway was a railway company in south-eastern England from 1836 until 1922. The company was formed to construct a route from London to Dover. Branch lines were later opened to Tunbridge Wells, Hastings, Canterbury and other places in Kent...
Company approached Dawkins asking him if his Channel Tunnel work has shown any coal under Kent. The finding of coal under Kent would have given the company great financial benefits. Together with Henry Willett and the French geologist Pigou, Dawkins presented a paper in 1887 proving the existence of coal under the Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
deposits of Kent.
Archaeology
Dawkins achieved many distinctions in the field of archaeologyArchaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
. In 1859 he moved to Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
to study classics with the vicar of Wookey
Wookey
Wookey is a village and civil parish west of Wells, on the River Axe in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. Wookey is often confused with its sister village Wookey Hole which is perhaps best known today for the Wookey Hole Caves...
. On hearing of the discovery of bones by local workmen he led excavations in the area of the hyena den at Wookey Hole Caves. He also excavated Aveline's Hole
Aveline's Hole
Aveline's Hole is a cave at Burrington Combe in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England.The earliest scientifically dated cemetery in Britain was found at Aveline's Hole...
, expanding its entrance and naming it after his mentor William Talbot Aveline
William Talbot Aveline
William Talbot Aveline was a British geologist and archaeologist.He was born in Batheaston, Somerset and grew up in Wrington. When he was 18 he became assistant to Henry De la Beche working for the Geological Survey...
. His work led to the discovery of the first evidence for use by Palaeolithic man in the Caves of the Mendip Hills
Caves of the Mendip Hills
The Caves of the Mendip Hills are formed by the particular geology of the Mendip Hills, with large areas of limestone worn away by water makes it a national centre for caving. The hills conceal the largest underground river system in Britain.- Geology :...
.
He spent a great deal of time researching in Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, especially at Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England near the villages of Creswell, Whitwell and Elmton...
and Windy Knoll near Castleton. At Windy Knoll (NGR SK126830), he proved the existence of exotic animals that lived in England prior to the ice ages. With Rooke Pennington and J. Tym, he discovered bones from bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
, hyena
Hyena
Hyenas or Hyaenas are the animals of the family Hyaenidae of suborder feliforms of the Carnivora. It is the fourth smallest biological family in the Carnivora , and one of the smallest in the mammalia...
, bear
Bear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
and a large cat, possibly a relative of the Sabre Tooth Tiger. The bison bones were more recently dated at 37 300bp (OxA – 4579). Many of the finds are located in the museums of Buxton, Derbyshire and Manchester.
Philanthropy
Dawkins was a fighter for workers' rights especially in the coal miningCoal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
industry. He lobbied hard to get a better education system for miners similar to the ones established in Germany. He donated undisclosed amounts of money to this cause.
Among his other donations was one to the Manchester Museum
Manchester Museum
The Manchester Museum is owned by the University of Manchester. Sited on Oxford Road at the heart of the university's group of neo-Gothic buildings, it provides access to about six million items from every continent and serves both as a resource for academic research and teaching and as a regional...
. The museum wanted to build an extension and started an appeal. The appeal raised £1015 2s 9d, of which Dawkins donated £500.
Later in life he fought for compensation for people whose homes had been affected by subsidence from the salt mines and workings near Northwich
Northwich
Northwich is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies in the heart of the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
.
Publications
Dawkins published many books and papers, but the best-known are:- 1866-1939, 1962: British Pleistocene Mammalia. 6 vols. London: Printed for the Palaeontographical Society (co-author with W. Ayshford Sanford, S. H. Reynolds)
- 1874: Cave Hunting. London: Macmillan
- 1875: "The mammalia found at Windy Knoll", in: Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society; 31, pp. 246–55
- 1877: "The exploration of the ossiferous deposits at Windy Knoll, Castleton, Derbyshire", in: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Society of London; 33, pp. 724–29 (with R. Pennington)
- 1877: "On mammal fauna of the caves of Creswell Crags", in: Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society; 33, pp. 589–612
- 1879: "Further discoveries in the Creswell Crags", in: Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society; 35, pp. 724–35 (with J. M. Mello)
- 1880: Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period. London: Macmillan
Sources
- Tweedale, Geoffrey & Procter, Timothy "Catalogue of the Papers of Professor Sir William Boyd Dawkins in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester", in: Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester; vol. 74, no. 2 (1992), pp. 3–36
- Tweedale, Geoffrey & Procter, Timothy (ca. 1990) New Documentary Evidence on the Career of Sir William Boyd Dawkins FRS (1837–1929). Manchester: John Rylands Research Institute Scientific Archives Project
- Wood, Kenneth (1987) Rich Seams--the history of the Manchester Geological and Mining Society. Bolton: Manchester Geological and Mining Society ISBN 0 904905 13 6
- Various papers, University of Manchester, John Rylands LibraryJohn Rylands LibraryThe John Rylands Library is a Victorian Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. The library, which opened to the public in 1900, was founded by Mrs Enriqueta Augustina Rylands in memory of her late husband, John Rylands...
, Deansgate, Manchester - Various archive papers of the Manchester Geological and Mining Society