Charles William Peach was a British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 naturalist

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 and geologist

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...

.

Biography

He was born at Wansford, Cambridgeshire; his father at the time was a saddle

Saddle

A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider or other load, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is the equestrian saddle designed for a horse, but specialized saddles have been created for camels and other creatures...

r and harness

Horse harness

A horse harness is a type of horse tack that allows a horse or other equine to pull various horse-drawn vehicles such as a carriage, wagon or sleigh. Harnesses may also be used to hitch animals to other loads such as a plow or canal boat....

-maker, and afterwards became an innkeeper, farming about eighty acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

s (0.32 km²) of land. He received an elementary education at Wansford and at Folkingham

Folkingham

Folkingham is a village and civil parish at the northern edge of the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the A15 road of north of Bourne. The civil parish and ecclesiastical parish have the same boundaries. The 2001 census recorded a population of 729.-Village:The village...

 in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

; and assisted for several years in the inn and farm.

In 1824 he was appointed riding officer

Riding officer

The Riding Officer was an occupation common during the 18th century around the coastlines of Britain. The principal duty of the office was to visit the coast within their predefined riding range, to meet and correspond with the other riding officers either in person or by letter, and to inquire and...

 in the HM Coastguard at Weybourne in Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

. Seaweed

Seaweed

Seaweed is a loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae. The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae...

s and other marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 organisms now attracted his attention, and these he zealously collected. His duties during the next few years led him to remove successively to Sheringham

Sheringham

Sheringham is a seaside town in Norfolk, England, west of Cromer.The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban District Council, is Mare Ditat Pinusque Decorat, Latin for "The sea enriches and the pine adorns"....

, Hasboro (Happisburgh

Happisburgh

Happisburgh is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated off the B1159 coast road from Ingham to Bacton.The civil parish has an area of , although this is declining due to cliff erosion. In the 2001 census, before the creation of Walcott parish, it had a...

), Cromer

Cromer

Cromer is a coastal town and civil parish in north Norfolk, England. The local government authority is North Norfolk District Council, whose headquarters is in Holt Road in the town. The town is situated 23 miles north of the county town, Norwich, and is 4 miles east of Sheringham...

, and Cley, all in Norfolk.

In the course of his rambles he met the Rev. James Layton, curate

Curate

A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...

 at Catfield

Catfield

Catfield is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is south-east of Cromer, north-east of Norwich and north-east of London. The village lies south-south-east of the nearby town of Stalham. The nearest railway station is at Worstead for the Bittern Line which...

, who lent him books and assisted in laying the foundations of accurate knowledge. About the year 1830 he was transferred to Charmouth

Charmouth

Charmouth is a village at the mouth of the River Char in West Dorset, England, with a population of 1,687 according to the 2001 census.-The village:...

 in Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, thence to Beer

Beer, Devon

The village of Beer is in south-east Devon, England, on Lyme Bay.- Location :The village of Beer is situated on the 95-mile long Jurassic Coast, England's first natural World Heritage Site and its picturesque cliffs, including Beer Head, form part of the South West Coast Path.Beer lies about two...

, and Paignton

Paignton

Paignton is a coastal town in Devon in England. Together with Torquay and Brixham it forms the unitary authority of Torbay which was created in 1998. The Torbay area is a holiday destination known as the English Riviera. Paignton's population in the United Kingdom Census of 2001 was 48,251. It has...

 in Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, and to Gorran Haven

Gorran Haven

Gorran Haven is a fishing village on the south coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately south of Mevagissey.The village lies in a cove between two sandy beaches...

 near Mevagissey

Mevagissey

Mevagissey is a village, fishing port and civil parish in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately five miles south of St Austell....

 in Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

.

Here he continued to pursue his zoological studies and supplied many specimens to George Johnston

George Johnston (naturalist)

George Johnston was a Scottish physician and naturalist.Johnston was one of the founders of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club and became its first president. His books include The Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed, History of British Zoophytes, and History of British Sponges and Lithophytes....

, who was then preparing his History of the British Zoophytes (1838). It was here too that he first found fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s in some of the older rocks previously regarded as not fossil-bearing; the discovery of which proved the presence of Bala Beds (Ordovician

Ordovician

The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six of the Paleozoic Era, and covers the time between 488.3±1.7 to 443.7±1.5 million years ago . It follows the Cambrian Period and is followed by the Silurian Period...

 or Lower Silurian) in the neighbourhood of Gorran Haven.

In 1841 he read a paper before the British Association at Plymouth On the Fossil Organic Remains found on the south-east coast of Cornwall, and in 1843 he brought before the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall

Royal Geological Society of Cornwall

The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall is a geological society based in Cornwall in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1814 to promote the study of the geology of Cornwall, and is the second oldest geological society in the world....

 an account of his discovery of fish remains in the Devonian slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

s near Polperro

Polperro

Polperro is a village and fishing harbour on the south-east Cornwall coast in South West England, UK, within the civil parish of Lansallos. Situated on the River Pol, 4 miles west of the neighbouring town of Looe and west of the major city and naval port of Plymouth, it is well-known for...

. Peach was transferred for a time to Fowey

Fowey

Fowey is a small town, civil parish and cargo port at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,273.-Early history:...

; and in 1849 to Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, first to Peterhead

Peterhead

Peterhead is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement , with a population of 17,947 at the 2001 Census and estimated to have fallen to 17,330 by 2006....

 (1849) and then to Wick (1853), where he made acquaintance with Robert Dick

Robert Dick

Robert Dick , Scottish geologist and botanist was born at Tullibody, in Clackmannanshire.His father was an officer of excise. At the age of thirteen, after receiving a good elementary education at the parish school, Dick was apprenticed to a baker, and served for three years...

 of Thurso

Thurso

-Facilities:Offices of the Highland Council are located in the town, as is the main campus of North Highland College, formerly Thurso College. This is one of several partner colleges which constitute the UHI Millennium Institute, and offers several certificate, diploma and degree courses from...

. During his stay in Peterhead

Peterhead

Peterhead is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement , with a population of 17,947 at the 2001 Census and estimated to have fallen to 17,330 by 2006....

 he met with Hugh Miller

Hugh Miller

Hugh Miller was a self-taught Scottish geologist and writer, folklorist and an evangelical Christian.- Life and work :Born in Cromarty, he was educated in a parish school where he reportedly showed a love of reading. At 17 he was apprenticed to a stonemason, and his work in quarries, together with...

 and collected 'Buchan Flints'. He collected the old red sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 fishes; and during a sojourn at Durness

Durness

Durness is a huge but remote parish in the northwestern Highlands of Scotland, encompassing all the land between the Moine to the East and the Gualin to the West...

 he first found fossils in the Cambrian

Cambrian

The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from Mya ; it is succeeded by the Ordovician. Its subdivisions, and indeed its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, where Britain's...

 limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 (1854). Peach was honoured with medals from the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society

Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society

The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society is an educational, cultural and scientific charity, based in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The Society exists to promote innovation in the arts and sciences...

.

He supplied Charles R. Darwin with cirripede (barnacle) specimens collected on the Cornish coast prior to his move to Peterhead.

Later life

Peach retired from the government service in 1861. He and his household moved to Edinburgh in May 1865 whereupon he commenced a new field of research and study into the plant fossils of the Carboniferous rocks of the area. He died at Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 on 28 February 1886.

One of his sons was the geologist Ben Peach

Ben Peach

Benjamin Neeve Peach, FRS was a British geologist.He was born at Gorran Haven in Cornwall to Charles William Peach, an amateur British naturalist and geologist. Ben was educated at the Royal School of Mines in London and then joined the Geological Survey in 1862 as a geologist, moving to the...

.