William Guybon Atherstone

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William Guybon Atherstone (1813 - March 26, 1898), British geologist, one of the pioneers of South African geology, was born in the district of Uitenhage, Cape Colony.

Having qualified as M.D. he settled in early life as a medical practitioner in Grahamstown, subsequently becoming a FRCS. In 1839 his interest was aroused in geology, and from that date he devoted the leisure time of a long and successful medical practice to the pursuit of geological science.

In 1857 he published an account of the rocks and fossils of Uitenhage (the latter described more fully by R Tate, Quart. Journal Geol. Soc., 1867). He also studied many fossil reptilia from the Karroo beds, and sent specimens to the British Museum. These were described by Sir Richard Owen.

Atherstone's identification, in 1867, of a crystal found at De Kalk near the junction of the et and Vaal rivers, as a diamond led indirectly to the establishment of the diamond industry of South Africa. He encouraged the workings at Jagersfontein, and he also called attention to the diamandiferous neck at Kimberley.

He was one of the founders of the Geological Society of South Africa at Johannesburg in 1895; and for some years previously he was a member of the Cape parliament. He died at Grahamstown, on March 26, 1898.

See the obituary by T Rupert Jones, Natural Science, vol. xiv. January 1899).