THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE 



NEW SERIES. DECADE VI. VOL. II. 



No. XL— NOVEMBER, 1915. 



OZR,IC3-IISr.A_I-, .A-DRTIOLIES. 



I. — Eminent Living Geologists. 



William Whitehead Watts, LL.D., Sc.D.,M.Sc.,F.R.S., P. Pres.G.S., 

 Professor of Geology in the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology, South Kensington ; Hon. Fellow of Sidney Sussex 

 College, Cambridge. 



(WITH A POETEAIT, PLATE XVI.) 



WILLIAM WHITEHEAD WATTS was born at Broseley in 

 Shropshire in 1860, and passed the critical part of his school 

 life at Denstone. Here he came under the influence of the Rev. D. 

 Edwardes, who taught him physics and chemistry, infected him with 

 a love of science, and stimulated him to try for a scholarship at 

 Cambridge. In spite of the winning of an exhibition, afterwards 

 converted into a scholarship at Sidney Sussex College, supplemented 

 by an exhibition from his old school, his maintenance at Cambridge 

 was only accomplished by much self-sacrifice on the part of his 

 parents. 



By great good fortune it happened that J. F. Walker had that year 

 been recalled to Sidney as Lecturer in Chemistry, and as young Watts 

 kept in the rooms immediately beneath him the two soon became fast 

 friends. Walker advised his pupil to dilute his study of chemistry 

 with a little geology, and thus, by accident or design, gave him 

 a chance to see that the subject was neither so dull nor so useless as 

 he had previously supposed it to be. Work at the Woodwardian 

 Museum nnder the stimulating teaching of Professors Hughes and 

 Bonney, of Tawney and li. D. Roberts, coupled always with the 

 friendly advice, assistance, and encouragement of Walker himself, 

 soon made geology occupy the chief place in his time and thoughts, 

 so that he adopted it for the final subject for his degree. 



Another potent factor in the same direction was the foundation of 

 the " Sedgwick Club " by a number of contemporaries, chief of whom 

 were Middlemiss, Harker, and Tom Roberts, one of the few Cambridge 

 clubs which has celebrated its 25th birthday and is now well on the 

 way to its jubilee. It numbers most of the well-known Cambridge 

 geologists among its members, and still meets for the discussion of 

 papers and for excursions, among which those to Charnwood and 

 Nuneaton have been conducted by one of the earliest presidents. 



When, at the end of 1881, he had obtained a first class in Geology 

 in the Natural Science Tripos, Watts was offered immediate work on 

 the University Extension by R. D. Roberts, and left Cambridge to 



DECADE VI. — VOL. II. — NO. XI. 31 



