XV 
HARRY GOVIER SEELEY, 1839—1909. 
Harry Govier SEELEY was the son of Richard Hovell Seeley by his second 
wife Mary Govier, and was educated at a private school in London. He was 
born in London on February 18, 1839, and began early to take an interest in 
Natural History. While still a boy he attended the lectures of Owen, 
Edward Forbes, Brayley, and others. He also took advantage of the 
opportunities for study afforded by the British Museum. At the age of 20 
he attracted the notice of the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, Woodwardian Professor 
of Geology at Cambridge, who appointed him to be his assistant. Until 1871, 
Seeley acted as his deputy in lecturing and teaching when the infirmities of 
age necessitated his rest from duties, and during the whole period Seeley was 
actively engaged in both curatorial work and researches in the Woodwardian 
Museum. In 1872 he returned to London, and was for some time engaged 
in lecturing and literary work. In 1876 he became Professor of Geography 
in King’s College and Professor of Geology and Geography in Queen’s 
College. In 1881 he was appointed Dean of Queen’s College. In 1891 he 
also became Lecturer on Geology and Mineralogy in the Royal Indian 
Engineering College, Coopers Hill, and held this office until the closing of 
the College in 1906. In 1896 he entered on the duties of the combined 
Professorships of Geology, Mineralogy, and Geography in King’s College, 
where he designed and equipped new laboratories, and worked until his last 
illness at the close of 1908. 
While occupied with these more serious professional duties, Prof. Seeley 
also devoted much time to the popularisation of geological science. During 
the decade 1880-90 he lectured under the auspices of the London Society for 
the Extension of University Teaching, and for a period of twenty-five years 
he conducted the London Geological Field Class, which made a series of 
weekly excursions each summer to study field geology under his guidance. 
He was also a well-known and much-appreciated lecturer in connection with 
the Gilchrist Educational Trust. 
From his earliest youth Prof. Seeley was imbued with the spirit of 
original research, and his appointment as assistant to the Woodwardian 
Professor at Cambridge gave him ample opportunities for following his 
inclinations. While accompanying Prof. Sedgwick in the field, and while 
preparing the lectures which he was so often called upon to deliver, he made 
many new observations on the rocks and fossils of Cambridgeshire and the 
neighbouring counties, which he published in a series of papers between. 
1859 and 1868. His researches on the Red Chalk and the Ampthill Clay 
were especially important. He soon became most interested, however, in the 
fragmentary reptilian bones from the Cambridge Greensand, which were then 
being discovered in large numbers in the phosphate diggings, and had never 
been closely studied. He arranged the collection in the Woodwardian 
Museum, and gradually extended his work to other groups of Vertebrate 
VOL. LXXXIII.—B. C 
