Thomas Henry Holland

Thomas Henry Holland
Thomas Henry Holland
Born	22 November 1868; Helston, Cornwall, England
Died	15 May 1947 (aged 78)
Alma mater	Royal College of Science; Owens College;
Occupation(s)	Geologist, university administrator

Sir Thomas Henry Holland KCSI KCIE FRS FRSE^[1] (22 November 1868 – 15 May 1947) was a British geologist who worked in India with the Geological Survey of India, serving as its director from 1903 to 1910. He later worked as an educational administrator at Edinburgh University.^[2]

Early life

Thomas Holland was born on 22 November 1868 in Helston, Cornwall,^[1] to John Holland and Grace Treloar Roberts who later emigrated to Canada to live in a farm in Springfield, Manitoba.^[3]

In 1884, Thomas won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Science, graduating with a first class degree in Geology. The dean at the Royal College of Science, Thomas Henry Huxley, made a great impression on Holland. He stayed on as an assistant to Professor John Wesley Judd and was awarded a Berkeley Fellowship at Owens College, Manchester, in 1889.^[1]

Career

In 1890, Holland was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India and curator of the Geological Museum and Laboratory. In 1903, he was appointed Director of the Geological Survey of India and in 1904 he was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. Holland produced the first scientific description of what he named as charnockite from Job Charnock's tombstone located in St John's Church compound in Calcutta which had been brought from somewhere in Madras.^[4]^[5] Holland continued work on the gneisses of southern India that had earlier been classified by William King and Robert Bruce Foote. Holland reclassified the hypersthene granites as acidic (the charnockites, with the type being from St Thomas Mount), the intermediate, basic, and ultrabasic. In 1908, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) for his services to the Geological Survey of India.^[1] He returned to Britain in 1910, and in 1912 he was appointed to the Royal Commission on Fuel and Engines.^[6]^[7] He was president of the British Association in 1928–1929.^[8]

Under the editorship of Holland a four volume "Provincial Geographies of India" series was published between 1913 and 1923 from the Cambridge University Press.

Holland was rector of Imperial College London^[9] from 1922 to 1929 and principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1929 to 1944. The Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for 1939 was awarded to Sir Thomas H. Holland, "for his services to the mineral industries". He was also a member of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society.^[2]

From 1929 until 1940 he was principal of Edinburgh University. In 1930 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir James Alfred Ewing, Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer, Ralph Allan Sampson and James Hartley Ashworth. He served as the society's vice-president from 1932 to 1935. He served as president of the Geographical Association in 1937–1938. He won the society's Bruce Preller Prize for 1941.^[10]

Death

Holland died unexpectedly at his home in Surbiton on 15 May 1947.^[11]

Family

He married twice: firstly in 1896 to Frances Maud Chapman (d.1942); secondly in 1946, aged 78, to Helen Ethleen Verrall.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Fermor, L. L. (1948). "Thomas Henry Holland. 1868–1947". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 6 (17): 83–114. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1948.0021. JSTOR 768913. S2CID 179031486.
^ ^a ^b "Holland, Sir Thomas Henry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33945. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
^ A. Raman: The Madras charnockite. Expressbuzz Archived 29 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine, 10 November 2009.
^ Datta, Rangan (24 August 2023). "The discovery of Charnockite – the rock of Charnock". No. The Telegraph. My Kolkata. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ MacLeod, R.M. (2004). "Holland, Sir Thomas Henry (1868–1947)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33945. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ "No. 28632". The London Gazette. 2 August 1912. pp. 5721–5722.
^ Presidential Address to the British Association Meeting, held at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1929
^ Sir Thomas H. Holland, KCSI, KCIE, DSC, LLD, FRS Archived 16 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Imperial College, London, UK.
^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
^ Fermor, L. L. (1947). "Sir Thomas Holland, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., F.R.S". Nature. 160 (4053): 11–13. Bibcode:1947Natur.160...11F. doi:10.1038/160011a0..

External links

AIM25: Royal Society: Holland, Thomas Henry (1868–1947), AIM25

Academic offices
Preceded by Alfred Keogh	Rector of Imperial College London 1922–1929	Succeeded by Henry Tizard
Preceded by Sir Alfred James Ewing	Principal of the University of Edinburgh 1929–1944	Succeeded by Sir John Fraser

[frs-1] Fermor, L. L. (1948). "Thomas Henry Holland. 1868–1947". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 6 (17): 83–114. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1948.0021. JSTOR 768913. S2CID 179031486.

[ODNB-2] "Holland, Sir Thomas Henry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33945. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[3] Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.

[4] A. Raman: The Madras charnockite. Expressbuzz Archived 29 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine, 10 November 2009.

[Rangan-5] Datta, Rangan (24 August 2023). "The discovery of Charnockite – the rock of Charnock". No. The Telegraph. My Kolkata. Retrieved 27 August 2023.

[6] MacLeod, R.M. (2004). "Holland, Sir Thomas Henry (1868–1947)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33945. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[7] "No. 28632". The London Gazette. 2 August 1912. pp. 5721–5722.

[8] Presidential Address to the British Association Meeting, held at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1929

[9] Sir Thomas H. Holland, KCSI, KCIE, DSC, LLD, FRS Archived 16 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Imperial College, London, UK.

[10] Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.

[11] Fermor, L. L. (1947). "Sir Thomas Holland, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., F.R.S". Nature. 160 (4053): 11–13. Bibcode:1947Natur.160...11F. doi:10.1038/160011a0..

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v t e Presidents of the Geological Society of London
19th century	George Bellas Greenough Henry Grey Bennet William Blake John MacCulloch George Bellas Greenough Earl Compton William Babington William Buckland John Bostock William Fitton Adam Sedgwick Roderick Murchison George Bellas Greenough Charles Lyell William Whewell William Buckland Roderick Murchison Henry Warburton Leonard Horner Henry De la Beche William Hopkins Edward Forbes William Hamilton Daniel Sharpe Joseph Ellison Portlock John Phillips Leonard Horner Andrew Crombie Ramsay William Hamilton Warington Wilkinson Smyth Thomas Henry Huxley Joseph Prestwich George Douglas Campbell John Evans Peter Martin Duncan Henry Clifton Sorby Robert Etheridge John Whitaker Hulke Thomas Bonney John Wesley Judd William Blanford Archibald Geikie Wilfred Hudleston Henry Woodward Henry Hicks William Whitaker
20th century	Jethro Teall Charles Lapworth John Marr Archibald Geikie William Sollas William Watts Aubrey Strahan Arthur Smith Woodward Alfred Harker George Lamplugh Richard Oldham Albert Seward John Evans Francis Bather John Gregory Edmund Garwood Thomas Holland John Green Owen Thomas Jones Henry Hurd Swinnerton Percy Boswell Herbert Leader Hawkins William Fearnsides Arthur Trueman Herbert Harold Read Cecil Tilley Owen Thomas Jones George Lees William King Walter Campbell Smith Leonard Hawkes James Stubblefield Sydney Hollingworth Oliver Bulman Frederick Shotton Kingsley Dunham Neville George William Alexander Deer Thomas Westoll Percy Kent Wallace Pitcher Percival Allen Howel Francis Janet Watson Charles Holland Bernard Leake Derek Blundell Anthony Harris Charles Curtis R. S. J. Sparks Richard Hardman Robin Cocks
21st century	Ronald Oxburgh Mark Moody-Stuart Peter Styles Richard Fortey Lynne Frostick

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