author
Thomas Wiltshire
A Victorian clergyman with a serious love of science, he helped make geology and paleontology more accessible through teaching, research, and years of work with learned societies.
1 Audiobook
On the Red Chalk of England
by Thomas Wiltshire
About the author
Born in London on April 21, 1826, Thomas Wiltshire was an English clergyman, geologist, and scientific writer. Sources agree that he studied at King's College London and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, and that he later became professor of geology and mineralogy at King's College.
Wiltshire was especially active in the scientific world beyond the lecture room. He served for many years as honorary secretary of the Palaeontographical Society, edited its annual volumes, and was also prominently involved with the Geologists' Association, serving as one of its early presidents. His published work included writing on fossils, chalk, and other geological subjects.
He died in October 1902. Although he is not a household name today, the record that survives shows a steady, practical figure in nineteenth-century science: a teacher, organizer, and scholar who helped support the institutions that kept geological research moving.