British geologist and businessman
Sir Joseph Prestwich
,
FRS
,
FGS
(12 March 1812 – 23 June 1896) was a British
geologist
and businessman, known as an expert on the
Tertiary Period
and for having confirmed the findings of
Boucher de Perthes
of ancient flint tools in the Somme valley gravel beds.
Biography
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]
Born in
Clapham
, Prestwich was educated in Paris and
Reading
before entering
University College, London
where he studied
chemistry
and natural philosophy. Whilst a student he founded the short-lived Zetetical Society. In 1830, he began working for the family wine business. This job required him to travel throughout the United Kingdom and also abroad to France and
Belgium
, and during the course of these travels he made many geological observations. He became a Fellow of
Geological Society
in 1833 and published his first paper there two years later.
[1]
His 1836 memoir on the
Geology of
Coalbrookdale
, based upon observations made during 1831 and 1832, established his reputation as a geologist.
From 1846, his attention focused upon the
Tertiary
deposits of the
London Basin
, which he subsequently classified and then correlated with Tertiary deposits throughout England, France and Belgium. In 1858, Prestwich was persuaded by
Hugh Falconer
to visit
Abbeville
, where
Boucher de Perthes
had claimed to have found
flint tools
in the gravel deposits of the valley of the
Somme
, thus establishing the
antiquity of man
. In company with Sir
John Evans
, Prestwich visited the gravel beds of
St Acheul
and confirmed the observations of Boucher de Perthes. Prestwich's report on the matter was published in the
Proceedings of the Royal Society
for 1859-1860: It is claimed by some authorities that this publication marks the birth of modern scientific
archaeology
.
During the late 1860s, Prestwich served on the Royal Coal Commission and the Royal Commission on the Metropolitan Water Supply. In 1870?72, he was president of the Geological Society.
[2]
In 1874, he was appointed to the chair of geology at the
University of Oxford
. Here he produced in two volumes
Geology, Chemical and Physical, Stratigraphical and Palaeontological
. In 1888, he retired from Oxford to
Shoreham, Kent
where he continued to work until his death in 1896. Prestwich was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society
in 1853, awarded its
Royal Medal
in 1865, awarded a Telford Medal for a paper entitled “On the Geological Conditions affecting the Construction of a Tunnel between England and France,” in 1873.
[3]
He was elected as a member of the
American Philosophical Society
in 1869.
[4]
Knighted in 1896, he married
Grace Anne McCall
, the niece of
Hugh Falconer
, in 1870.
[5]
Notes
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References
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- "Obituary Notices of Fellows Deceased",
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London
, Volume 60. (1896?1897), pp.
i?xxxv
.
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External links
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