In Mcinoyiain : JoJvi Roche Dakyiis. 385 



John Roche, the eldest of six sons, was born on January 

 31st, 1836, in the island of St. Vincent, West Indies, where his 

 father, Dr. T. H. Dakyns, held estates and pursued his medical 

 ]M-()fession. The family removed to Rugby in 1845, and the 

 future geologist was educated there, at first in a preparatory 

 school, under the Rev. T. L. Bloxam, and afterwards at Rugby 

 School. In 1855 ^^e went up to Trinity College, Cambridge ; 

 was elected a scholar of his College in 1858; and graduated 

 with distinction in 1859, being bracketed 27th Wrangler in 

 the Mathematical Tripos. He took the degree of M.A. in 1864. 



In 1862 he was appointed to the staff of the Geological 

 •Survey as Assistant-Geologist, proceeding to the rank of 

 Geologist in 1868. His earlier work for the Survey was done 

 mainly in the West Riding and just across its border in West- 

 morland, Cumberland, Lancashire and Derbyshire. 



About the year 1877 his field of work was changed to the 

 East Riding — much to his distaste, for the Dale country had 

 cast its charm over him. During the next three or four years 

 he mapped the northern part of Holderness and the neighbour- 

 ing Wolds. After some further work in the west of our county, 

 he was transferred in 1884 to the South-west Highlands of 

 Scotland, where his field lay chiefly in the shires of Perth and 

 Argyle.* Ten years later he was sent to assist in the mapping 

 of South Wales, and spent two years there. In 1896 he retired 

 from the Survey, after a service of thirty-four years. 



During the course of his official work he contributed, as 

 part-author, to fourteen memoirs (of which the titles are given 

 in the Bibliography printed below), nearly all relating to 

 Yorkshire. He wrote also numerous short pithy papers (see 

 Bibliography), always packed with acute obser\-ations and 

 enlivened by a characteristic style, which were published in 

 the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, the Geological 

 ^lagazine, and the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological 

 and Polytechnic Society. Those of us who know him best, 

 however, have felt that his published work gave but a faint 

 reflection of the extent of his knowledge and attainments. 

 This discrepancy was due partly to his dislike for writing, but 

 perhaps still more to the severely logical turn of his mind, 

 which was never satisfied with anything short of absolute 



* The photograph which we reproduce was taken soon after he went 

 to Scotland. It is enlarged from tiie original in which Dakyns, in a 

 reclining posture, forms one of a group. 



igio Nov. I. 



