484 Eminent Living Geologists — Professor W. W. Watts. 



published the official account. In 1910 he was elected President 

 of the Society and delivered two addresses, the first dealing with 

 geology as an evolutionary science, the second with the problem of 

 coal supply. His period of office was also marked by the transfer of 

 the Society's collections to the Museums of Natural History and 

 Practical Geology, and the consequent extension of the Library. 



As President of the Geologists' Association during its Jubilee (1908) 

 and the following year, Watts delivered two addresses dealing with 

 the history and the work of the Association. He was also present when 

 this body visited the Paris Basin under the genial guidance of 

 M. Dollfus. 



Watts had the good fortune to be at Birmingham during the growth 

 of the Mason College into Birmingham University ; at South Kensington 

 when the School of Mines developed into the Imperial College ; and in 

 London during the recent expansion of its University, acting part of 

 the time as Chairman of the Board of Studies in Geology and later as 

 Dean of the Faculty of Science, and sitting on the Senate and the 

 Academic Council. He was further fortunate in fitting into the 

 admirable teaching scheme of Lapworth at Birmingham, and in 

 succeeding to the eminently practical methods of Judd. The 

 experiences thus gained, coupled with the training of the University 

 Extension, at a school, and at other Universities, has naturally 

 reacted on his own teaching and intensified its practical and economic 

 sides. This is illustrated by his book Geology for Beginners, 1898, 

 but the chief outcome has been the establishment at the Imperial 

 College of a Chair of Economic Mineralogy, occupied by C. G. Cullis, 

 the initiation of a school of Oil Technology, and the bringing of the 

 teaching into close relations with the other technological work of 

 the Imperial College. 



Professor Watts has served on the Councils of many Scientific 

 Societies, the Royal, Geological, Geographical, Mineralogical, and 

 Palseontographical, as well as the Geologists' and British Associations. 

 He served on the Funafuti Committee of the Royal Society and had 

 much to do with the organization of the Reef-drilling expedition ; 

 while as a member of the Education Committee of Sutton Coldfield he 

 superintended the erection and equipment of the technical school 

 there. He has acted as examiner in Geology to the Universities of 

 Oxford, Cambridge, London, Durham, Leeds, Wales, Ireland, and 

 New Zealand, and in Geography at Cambridge and London. He has 

 been Secretary and President of the Yesey Club, and President of 

 the Sutton Scientific Society, the Geographical Section of the 

 Birmingham Natural History Society, and the Birmingham Naturalists' 

 Union. 



He joined the Geological Society in 1882, received the Wollaston 

 Fund in 1895, and the Murchison Medal in 1915. The official degree 

 of M.Sc. was conferred on him at Birmingham in 1902, that of Sc.D. 

 at Cambridge in 1908, and the honorary degree of LL.D. as the 

 representative of the Geological Society at the Tercentenary gathering 

 at St. Andrews in 1911. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 

 1904, was elected to a Fellowship at Sidney Sussex College in 1888, 

 and was made an Honorary Fellow of his old College in 1910. 



