William Samuel Symonds

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William Samuel Symonds (1818 - September 15, 1887), English geologist, was born in Hereford.

He was educated at Cheltenham and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1842. Having taken holy orders he was appointed curate of Offenham, near Evesham in 1843, and two years later he was presented to the living of Pendock in Worcestershire, where he remained until 1877. While at Offenham he became acquainted with HE Strickland and from him developed an interest in natural history and geology, that consumed him from that point. He was one of the founders of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club (1851) and of the Malvern Naturalists' Field Club (1853), and was an active member of the Cotteswold Field Club and other local societies.

In 1858 he edited an edition of Hugh Miller's Cruise of the "Betsey." He was the author of numerous essays on the geology of the Malvern country, notably of a paper "On the passage-beds from the Upper Silurian rocks into the Lower Old Red Sandstone at Ledbury" (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1860). His principal work was Records of the Rocks (1872). He was author of Stones of the Valley (1857), Old Bones, or Notes for Young Naturalists (1859, 2nd ed. 1864), and other popular works including historical romances such as Malvern Chase and Hanley Castle. He died at Cheltenham on the 15th of September 1887. See A Sketch of the Life of the Rev. W.S. Symonds, by the Rev. J.D. La Touche.