VOL. XVI. (3) OBITUARY NOTICE 273 
ARTHUR SPRY HELPS 
Born January 29th, 1845. Died September 14th, 1908. 
Arthur Spry Helps, who was Hon. Secretary for the 
Session 1897-8, and Hon. Treasurer from 1898 until the 
time of his death, was born at Gloucester in 1845. 
Educated at Gloucester College School and at Rugby, he 
was articled to his father, entering into partnership with 
Mr John Bryan in 1888. 
Always of a quiet disposition, it was probably the 
privilege of only a few to truly know him. His main 
interest was in meteorology, his neatly-kept record-tables 
of rainfall being a valuable contribution to local statistics." 
He was also much interested in Geology, and helped 
W. C. Lucy to measure the fine sections of Pea-Grit 
that formed the bank at the back of his residence at Birdlip. 
In his grounds the junction of the Oolite and Lias is also 
excellently seen, and one winter Mr Helps amused him- 
self with making an artificial cave that had the Upper-Lias 
clays for its sides and the massive Scissum-Beds for its 
roof2 In his all too-brief holidays he seldom travelled 
without his geological maps wherewith to interpret the 
origin of hill and dale. To the Club’s Proceedings he 
contributed “ Gloucestershire Rainfall” (vol. xii., pp. 
155-196) and “ Notes on a Daily Chart” (vol. xvi., pp. 
147-159). Some 
In Mr Helps the Club has lost an able Treasurer and 
an interested Student of Natural History. 
1 This table is still at The Knap, Witcombe. 
2 See Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. xx., pt. 7 (1908), pp. 518-520. 
