Henry William Bristow (17 May 1817 – 14 June 1889) was anEnglishgeologist andnaturalist.
He was born in London on 17 May 1817.He was the son of Major-generalHenry Bristow, a member of a Wiltshire family, and his wife Elizabeth Atchorne of High Wycombe. After passing with distinction throughKing's College, London, he joined the staff of the Geological Survey in 1842, and was set to work inRadnorshire. From this county he was shortly afterwards transferred to theCotteswold district, which he examined up toBath, and afterwards surveyed a large part of Dorset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, with the Isle of Wight, besides some of the Wealden area, Berkshire, and Essex, rising ultimately in 1872 to the position of director for England and Wales. His field work was admirable in quality, for he was no less patient than accurate in unravelling a complicated district — one of those men, in short, who lay the foundations on which his successors can build, and whose services to British geology are more lasting than showy.[1]
He retired from the survey in July 1888 and died on 14 June 1889.[1]
He was electedF.G.S. in 1843 andF.R.S. in 1862, was an honorary member of sundry societies, and received the order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus.
His separate papers are few in number — about eight — and during his later years he suffered from deafness, which prevented him from taking part in the business of societies. But his mark is made on several of the maps and other publications of the Geological Survey, more especially in the memoir of parts of Berkshire and Hampshire (a joint production), and in that admirable one,The Geology of the Isle of Wight, almost all of which was from his pen. He contributed also to sundry publications, official and otherwise, and wrote or edited the following books: 1.Glossary of Mineralogy, 1861. 2.Underground Life (translation, with additions ofLa Vie Souterraine, by L. Simonin), 1869. 3.The World before the Deluge (a translation, with additions, of a work by L. Figuier), 1872.[1]
On 22 October 1863 he married Eliza Harrison, second daughter of David Harrison, a London solicitor, and to them four children were born, two sons and as many daughters; they and the widow surviving him.[1]
Bristow was electedF.R.S. in 1862. A road inCheylesmore, Coventry UK is named after him.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Bonney, Thomas George (1901). "Bristow, Henry William". InLee, Sidney (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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