Charles Callaway
Charles Callaway (1838–29 September 1915) was an English geologist.
He was born in Bristol in 1838. His father Lemuel was an accountant and his mother was Jane Williams. He first planned to become a minister and, from 1859, studied at Cheshunt College near London. He served as a nonconformist minister in Kirkby Stephen (1865–1868) and Wellington (1869–1871). While ministering, he also studied for several London University degrees and earned a first‑class degree in geology in 1872.
In 1871 he worked as librarian and museum curator for the Bradford Philosophical Society. He then spent time at the New York State Museum in Albany (1873–1874) and later at the Sheffield Public Museum until 1876. He married Hannah Maria Clark in 1876. She was a music teacher at Hiatt’s Ladies’ College. Callaway taught English, history, and science part‑time at the college while pursuing his research in paleontology and geology.
In 1878 he became one of the first people in Britain to be awarded a Doctor of Science (D.Sc) in geology and physical geography. He studied the geology of Shropshire and Anglesey and helped show that Precambrian rocks exist there.
In 1880 he explored the Northwest Highlands of Scotland and wrote a paper for the Geological Society. He challenged the idea that gneiss was covered by limestone without an intervening gap in time. He proposed that limestone was deposited on top of gneiss, which was later raised by faulting.
Callaway played a major role in the Highlands controversy. He generally supported James Nicol’s work but found that along a fault from Loch Eriboll to Ullapool, much of Nicol’s “igneous rock” was actually Lewisian gneiss thrust over Ordovician rock.
He retired in 1898 and received the Murchison Medal from the Geological Society of London in 1903. In retirement he founded the Cheltenham Ethical Society and became an ardent agnostic. He wrote for the Agnostic Annual and served on the editorial board of Rationalist Press.
Charles Callaway died in 1915 and was buried without a religious ceremony.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:31 (CET).