LIX>EA>' SOClEXr or LOXDOX. 57 



1SS6, and of the Eoyal Society in 1888, receiving a Eoyal Medal 

 in 1893, and strviug a term on the Councils of both Societies. In 

 1897 he was elected Honorary i'ellow of Christ's College, and was 

 Sc.D. of Cambridge, and D.Sc. of Victoria University, Manchester, 

 besides many other honorary distinctions. 



He died at Torquay, as mentioned previously, and was buried 

 at the Huntingdon Eoad Cemetery, Cambridge, on 3rd September, 

 1906, Professor Vines and Lieut.-Colonel Train representing our 

 Society, He leaves behind him the reputation of a brilliant 

 investigator, a masterly expositor, a genial companion, a whole- 

 hearted devotee to the work of his life. The work he accomplished 

 and its high quality testify to the consuming enthusiasm of the 

 man who compressed so much into litlle more than halt-a-century 

 of existence. [B. D. J.] 



"William "Waterfield was born at The Cloisters, Westminster, 

 on 14th August, 1832, and went to Westminster School in 1843, 

 was elected head into College (i. e., gained a scholarship) in 1846, 

 was Captain of the School in 1849-50, and became a " major- 

 candidate,'"' i. e., underwent the examination necessary for his 

 election to the University, but withdrew his name befoi-e the 

 electors came to decide on the merits of the candidates. He so 

 distinguished himself during the examination as to elicit the 

 universal approbation of the electors ; and the Dean of Christ 

 Church (with whom lay the first choice) expressed his regret and 

 disappointment that he could not seciu'e so prortiisiug a student 

 for Christ Church. 



Mr. Waterfield, however, preferred an appointment to a Bengal 

 Writership, and accordingly went to Haileybury, then the training 

 college for service under the East India Company. At Haileybury 

 he maintained the reputation he had obtained at Westminster 

 and gained many prizes and medals for classics, mathematics, 

 and English essays, &c., and for Sanskrit, Persian, Hindustani, 

 Hindi, and Bengali. 



He left Haileybury in 1852, being head of his Term, and went 

 out to India, where the College of Fort Wilham was then still in 

 existence in Calcutta. Here he obtained medals for Oordoo, 

 Bengalese, Hindee, Persian, and Ai'abic, and so distinguished 

 himself that the Grovernor-General, Lord Dalhousie, presented him 

 with his Degree of Honour in person. Mr. Waterfield was the 

 last student to obtain the Degree of Honour, the College being 

 abolished in 1854. 



He was posted to Bengal, where he served mainly in the Eevenue 

 and Survey Department from 1852 to 1859, devoting his spare time 

 to a study of the natural history of the tracts of country which he 

 visited in the course of his official duty. In 1859, on the transfer 

 to the Crown of the government of India, he \\as appointed Eirst 

 Assistant to the Accountaut-General for India, a charge of great trust, 

 for which mathematical attainments conjoined with marked capacity 

 for business specially fitted him, and from that time until his 



