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BLANFORD, WILLIAM THOMAS (1832-1905)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 41 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BLANFORD, See also:WILLIAM See also:THOMAS (1832-1905) , See also:English geologist and naturalist, was See also:born in See also:London on the 7th of See also:October 1832. He was educated in private See also:schools in See also:Brighton and See also:Paris, and with a view to the See also:adoption of a See also:mercantile career spent two years in a business See also:house at Civita Vecchia. On returning to See also:England in 1851 he was induced to enter the newly established Royal School of Mines, which his younger See also:brother See also:Henry F. Blanford (1834-1893), afterwards See also:head of the See also:Indian Meteorological See also:Department, had already joined; he then spent a See also:year in the See also:mining school at See also:Freiburg, and towards the See also:close of 1854 both he and his brother obtained posts on the See also:Geological Survey of See also:India. In that service he remained for twenty-seven years, retiring in 1882. He was engaged in various parts of India, in the Raniganj coalfield, in Bombay, and in the coalfield near Talchir, where boulders considered to have been See also:ice-See also:borne were found in the Talchir strata—a remarkable See also:discovery See also:con-firmed by subsequent observations of other geologists in See also:equivalent strata elsewhere. His See also:attention was given not only to See also:geology but to See also:zoology, and especially to the See also:land-See also:mollusca and to the vertebrates. In 1866 he was attached to the Abyssinian expedition, accompanying the See also:army to See also:Magdala and back; and in 1871-1872 he was appointed a member of the See also:Persian Boundary See also:Commission. The best use was made of the exceptional opportunities of studying the natural See also:history of those countries. For his many contributions to geological See also:science Dr Blanford was in 1883 awarded the See also:Wollaston See also:medal by the Geological Society of London; and for his labours on the zoology and geology of See also:British India he received in 1901 a royal medal from the Royal Society. He had been elected F.R.S. in 1874, and was chosen See also:president of the Geological Society in 1888. He was created C.I.E. in 1904.

He died in London on the 23rd of See also:

June 1905. His See also:principal publications were: Observations on the Geology and Zoology of See also:Abyssinia (187o), and See also:Manual of the Geology of India, with H. B. Medlicott (1879). See also:Biography, with bibliography and portrait, in Geological See also:Magazine, See also:January 1905.

End of Article: BLANFORD, WILLIAM THOMAS (1832-1905)

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