William Thomas Blanford (October 7, 1832 – June 23, 1905) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
geologistFor other uses, see Geologist .A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth and terrestrial planets...
and
naturalistNatural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, Natural history is the systematic...
.
Blanford was born in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. He was educated in private schools in
BrightonBrighton is a town in the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex on the south coast of Great Britain...
and
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and with a view to the adoption of a mercantile career spent two years in a business house at Civita Vecchia. On returning to England in 1851 he was induced to enter the newly established
Royal School of MinesRoyal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering , and Materials at Imperial College London.- History :The Royal School of Mines was established in 1851, as the Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts...
(now part of
Imperial College LondonImperial College London is a British university in London specialising in science, engineering, medicine and business....
), which his younger brother
Henry F. BlanfordHenry Francis Blanford was a meteorologist and paleontologist who worked in India. He was a brother of the naturalist William Thomas Blanford....
(1834 – 1893), afterwards head of the Indian Meteorological Department, had already joined.
William Thomas Blanford (October 7, 1832 – June 23, 1905) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
geologistFor other uses, see Geologist .A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth and terrestrial planets...
and
naturalistNatural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, Natural history is the systematic...
.
Blanford was born in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. He was educated in private schools in
BrightonBrighton is a town in the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex on the south coast of Great Britain...
and
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and with a view to the adoption of a mercantile career spent two years in a business house at Civita Vecchia. On returning to England in 1851 he was induced to enter the newly established
Royal School of MinesRoyal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering , and Materials at Imperial College London.- History :The Royal School of Mines was established in 1851, as the Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts...
(now part of
Imperial College LondonImperial College London is a British university in London specialising in science, engineering, medicine and business....
), which his younger brother
Henry F. BlanfordHenry Francis Blanford was a meteorologist and paleontologist who worked in India. He was a brother of the naturalist William Thomas Blanford....
(1834 – 1893), afterwards head of the Indian Meteorological Department, had already joined. He studied under
Henry De la BecheSir Henry Thomas De la Beche FRS was an English geologist who helped pioneer early survey methods.-Biography:...
, Lyon Playfair,
Edward ForbesProfessor Edward Forbes FRS, FGS was a Manx naturalist.-Early years:Forbes was born at Douglas, in the Isle of Man. While still a child, when not engaged in reading, or in the writing of verses and drawing of caricatures, he occupied himself with the collecting of insects, shells, minerals,...
, Ramsay, and Warrington Smyth. He then spent a year in the mining school at
Freiberg, SaxonyFreiberg is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, administrative center of the Mittelsachsen district.The city was founded in 1186, and has been a center of the mining industry in the Ore Mountains for centuries...
, and towards the close of 1854 both he and his brother obtained posts on the
Geological Survey of IndiaGeological Survey of India , established in 1851 is a government organization in India for conducting geological surveys and studies. It is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world.-History:...
. In that service he remained for twenty-seven years, retiring in 1882. After his retirement he took up editorship of the
Fauna of British IndiaThe Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma was a series of publications made by the British government in India and was published by Taylor and Francis of London. The series was started somewhere in 1881 after a letter was sent to the Secretary of State for India signed by Charles...
series.
He was engaged in various parts of India, in the Raniganj coalfield, in Bombay, and in the coalfield near
TalcherTalcher is a city and a municipality in Anugul district in the Indian state of Orissa.-Geography:Talcher is located at . It has an average elevation of 78 metres .-Demographics:...
, where boulders considered to have been ice-borne were found in the Talcher strata — a remarkable discovery confirmed by subsequent observations of other geologists in equivalent strata elsewhere.
His attention was given not only to geology but to
zoologyZoology, also spelled zoölogy, is the branch of biology that focuses on the structure, function, behavior, and evolution of animals. The zoologist's pronunciation of "zoology" is , though a common spelling pronunciation is .-Systems of classification:...
, and especially to the land-
molluscaMolluscs
[Spelled mollusk in the USA, see reasons given in Rosenberg's ; for the spelling "mollusc" see the reasons given by .] are animals belonging to the phylum Mollusca. There are around 93,000 recognized extant species, making it the largest marine phylum with about 23% of...
and to the
vertebrateVertebrates are members of the subphylum Vertebrata, chordates with backbones or spinal columns. About 58,000 species of vertebrates have been described. Vertebrata is the largest subphylum of chordates, and contains many familiar groups of large land animals. Vertebrates comprise cyclostomes, bony...
s. In 1866 he was attached to the
AbyssinianEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
expedition, accompanying the army to
MagdalaMagdala is the name of at least two places in ancient Palestine mentioned in the Jewish Talmud and one that may be mentioned in the Christian New Testament.The New Testament makes one, disputable, mention of a place called Magdala...
and back; and in 1871 – 1872 he was appointed a member of the
PersianIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
Boundary Commission along with
O. B. St. JohnSir Oliver Beauchamp Coventry St. John, KCSI was an administrator in British India. He served as the Chief Commissioner of Balochistan for ten years....
. After a voyage to Basra he started back from Gwadar, 200 miles west of Karachi. Marching to Shiraz with St. John's party and then travelled alone through Ispahan to Teheran to join Sir Richard Pollock. He visited the Elbruz Mountains and returned to England from the Caspian via Astrakhan, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Berlin to reach home in September 1872. The best use was made of the exceptional opportunities of studying the natural history of those countries. He subsequently spent time to produce the report on Zoology. He represented the Indian Government at the
meeting of the Geological Congress in Bologna.
In 1883 he married Ida Gertrude Bellhouse, and settled at Bedford Gardens,
Campden HillCampden Hill is an area of high ground in West London between Notting Hill, Kensington and Holland Park.The area is characterised by large Victorian houses. It is also the site of reservoirs established in the 19th century by the Grand Junction Waterworks Company and the West Middlesex Waterworks...
.
For his many contributions to geological science, Blanford was in 1883 awarded the
Wollaston medalThe Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London.The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831...
by the
Geological Society of LondonThe Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth". It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with over 9000 Fellows entitled to the postnominal FGS - over...
. For his labours on the zoology and geology of British India he received in 1901 a royal medal from the
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
. He had been elected F.R.S. in 1874, and was chosen president of the Geological Society in 1888. He was created
C.I.E.The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...
in 1904. He died in London in 1905.
His principal publications were:
Observations on the Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia (1870),
Manual of the Geology of India, with
H. B. MedlicottHenry Benedict Medlicott was an Irish geologist who worked in India.-Early life:He was born in Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland, the son of the Church of Ireland Rector of Loughrea, Samuel Medlicott and his wife Charlotte , daughter of Henry Benedict Dolphin, C. B...
(1879) and the third volume in Birds following the work of
E. W. OatesEugene William Oates was an English naturalist.Oates was born in Sicily and educated in Bath, England. He was a civil servant in the Public Works Department in India and Burma from 1867 to 1899...
in the Fauna of British India series.
External links