xx Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



Medlicott, Eector of Loughrea, and of Charlotte, daughter of Colonel 

 H. B. Dolphin, C.B. ; his elder brother, Joseph G. Medlicott, was also for 

 several years on the Staff of the Geological Survey of India. 



Henry Medlicott was educated in France, Guernsey, and Dublin, where 

 he graduated in Trinity College and took the degree of B.A. in 1850, with 

 diploma and honours in the School of Civil Engineering. He took the M.A. 

 degree in 1870. He was thus from his early education an excellent French 

 Scholar, and his acquaintance with the classical works of the great French 

 geologists may be often traced in his writings. 



In 1851 he joined the Geological Survey in Ireland, and in 1853 he was 

 transferred to the English Survey where, for a time, he worked with 

 Mr. Aveline in Wiltshire. He was next engaged by Dr. Oldham and joined 

 the Indian Geological Survey, then occupied in the Eajmahal Hills at 

 or near Bhagalpur on March 24, 1854. His brother, J. G Medlicott, had 

 joined the survey a year or two earlier. Before, however, Henry Medlicott 

 had commenced field work, he was appointed, in August, 1854, by the Court 

 of Directors of the East India Company, Professor of Geology in Rurki 

 College, and he remained in this post till October, 1862, when on some 

 additions being made to the staff of the Geological Survey, he rejoined it as 

 Deputy Superintendent for Bengal. 



During his tenure of the Rurki Professorship, however, he did most 

 important work in field geology. By an arrangement with Dr. Oldham he 

 was allowed to occupy the field season in surveying, and thus he was enabled 

 to examine parts of the Nerbudda Valley and Bundelkhand in 1854 — 55 and 

 in 1856 — 57, whilst in the other years he was engaged in working out 

 the geology of the Lower Himalayas between the Ganges and the Ravi 

 (Hard war to Dalhousie), and of the Siwalik Beds and their associates at the 

 base of the mountains. In 1857 he served as a Volunteer with the garrison 

 of Rurki against the mutineers of the Bengal Army, and on the close of the 

 Campaign was awarded the Indian Mutiny Medal for Special Service. An 

 instance of the service rendered may be added here. 



Rurki during the outburst of the Sepoy mutiny was isolated, like most of 

 the small garrisons in the Upper Provinces, where the natives of the villages 

 were associated with the rebels. No European could possibly traverse the 

 country in safety. News was received at Rurki one day of a Christian 

 family who were held by the villagers as prisoners at a few miles distance, 

 and who were in imminent danger of being killed. It was arranged that Henry 

 Medlicott and one European companion should go out with an escort of 

 Sowars to endeavour to rescue these unfortunate people, but on the day before 

 the attempt the Sowars showed signs of mutiny and were disarmed. 

 Medlicott and his companion, whose name appears now impossible to trace, 

 left in the morning, and by sheer pluck, at the risk of their lives, succeeded 

 in bringing back the imprisoned people in safety, the villagers apparently 

 being so astonished at two Europeans coming among them that they 

 surrendered their prisoners. Only the outline of the story can be now 



