Thomas Henry Holland

Sir Thomas Henry Holland KCSI KCIE FRS[1] (22 November 1868 – 15 May 1947) was a British geologist and educational administrator.[2]

Thomas Holland was born in Helston, Cornwall.[1] In 1884, he won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Science, graduating with a first class degree in Geology. He stayed on until he was awarded a Berkeley Fellowship at Owens College, Manchester, in 1889.

In 1890, Holland was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India and curator of the Geological Museum and Laboratory. In 1903, he was appointed Director of the Geological Survey of India and in 1904 he was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1908, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) for his services to the Geological Survey of India. He was president of the British Association in 1928–1929.[3]

Under the editorship of Holland a four volume "Provincial Geographies of India" series was published between 1913-23 from the Cambridge University Press.

Holland was Rector of Imperial College London[4] from 1922 to 1929 and Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1929 to 1944. The Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for 1939 was awarded to Sir Thomas H. Holland, "for his services to the mineral industries". He was also a member of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society.[2] From him comes the first scientific description of the charnockites near Calcutta.[5]

He died unexpectedly in 1947.[6]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Fermor, L. L. (1948). "Thomas Henry Holland. 1868-1947". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 6 (17): 83. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1948.0021. JSTOR 768913.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Holland, Sir Thomas Henry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33945. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. Presidential Address to the British Association Meeting, held at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1929
  4. Sir Thomas H. Holland, KCSI, KCIE, DSC, LLD, FRS, Imperial College, London, UK.
  5. A. Raman: The Madras charnockite. Expressbuzz, 10 November 2009.
  6. Fermor, L. L. (1947). "Sir Thomas Holland, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., F.R.S". Nature 160 (4053): 11. doi:10.1038/160011a0..

External links

Academic offices
Preceded by
Alfred Keogh
Rector of Imperial College London
1922–1929
Succeeded by
Henry Tizard
Preceded by
Sir Alfred James Ewing
Edinburgh University Principals
1929–1944
Succeeded by
Sir John Fraser