- Robert Etheridge
Robert Etheridge (3 December 1819 – 18 December 1903) was an English
geologist andpalaeontologist .Etheridge was born at
Ross-on-Wye , inHerefordshire . After an ordinary school education in his native town, he obtained employment in a business house inBristol . There he devoted his spare time to natural history pursuits, and in 1850 was appointed curator of the museum attached to the Bristol Philosophical Institution. He also became lecturer onbotany in the Bristol medical school. In 1857, through the influence of Sir Roderick I. Murchison, he was appointed to a post in the Museum of Practical Geology inLondon , and eventually became palaeontologist to theGeological Survey .In 1865 he assisted Prof. Huxley in the preparation of a "Catalogue of Fossils in the Museum of Practical Geology". His chief work for many years was in naming the
fossil s collected during the progress of the Geological Survey, and in supplying the lists that were appended to numerous official memoirs. In this way he acquired an exceptional knowledge of British fossils, and he ultimately prepared an elaborate work entitled "Fossils of the British Islands, Stratigraphically and Zoologically Arranged". Only the first volume dealing with thePalaeozoic species was published (1888). Etheridge also was author of several papers on theRhaetic Beds , and of an important essay on the "Physical Structure of North Devon", and on the "Palaeontological Value of the Devonian Fossils" (1867). He edited, and in the main rewrote, the second part of a new edition ofJohn Phillip 's "Manual of Geology" entitled "Stratigraphical Geology and Palaeontology" (1885). He was elected Fellow of theRoyal Society in 1871, was awarded theMurchison Medal of theGeological Society of London in 1880 and was president of that Society in 1881-1882. In 1881 Etheridge was transferred from the Geological Survey to the geological department of the British Museum, where he served as assistant keeper until 1891. In 1896 he was the first recipient of the Bolitho Medal of theRoyal Geological Society of Cornwall . [R. J. Cleevely, ‘Etheridge, Robert (1819–1903)’,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33028 accessed 15 Nov 2007] ] He died atChelsea, London , on 18 December 1903.His son
Robert Etheridge, Junior was also a palaeontologist.References
*1911
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