William Boyd Dawkins (1837-1929)
- By: Lucy Veale
- 25th July
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William Boyd Dawkins (my character guide for the ‘Ice Age Tour’ at Creswell Crags) was a geologist and palaeontologist. He studied at Oxford where he became interested in human pre-history and the age of the earth, particularly in the survival of human implements. He soon turned his attention to cave research, excavating a hyena den at Wookey Hole, Somerset. Between 1861-1869 he was a member of the Geological Survey of Britain and became a colleague of Thomas Henry Huxley at the Royal School of Mines. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1867. He later became Curator of Natural History at the old Manchester Museum. He worked at Creswell between 1875-1878. After the 1870s he was increasingly drawn to more applied geology, becoming an advisor to one of the pioneering attempts to create a Channel Tunnel. In 1890 he discovered the Kent Coalfield. As a museum Curator he organised free public lectures at the weekends. He left his books and many papers to the town of Buxton, which later created a ‘Boyd Dawkins’ room at its museum. (Information from ODNB).
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