William Boyd Dawkins

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Sir William Boyd Dawkins FRS FSA FGS (26 December 1837 – 15 January 1929) was a British geologist and archaeologist. He worked for the Geological Survey of Great Britain, was Curator of the Manchester Museum, and became the first Professor of Geology at Owens College in Manchester. He is known for his studies of fossils and for showing evidence of early humans using caves.

Dawkins was born at Buttington Vicarage in Montgomeryshire, Wales. As a child he collected fossils from local spoil heaps, and his interests continued after his family moved to Fleetwood, Lancashire, where he attended Rossall School. He studied at Jesus College, Oxford, earning a second in Classics and a first in Natural Sciences. After leaving Oxford in 1862, he joined the Geological Survey and worked on Kent and the Thames Valley.

In 1869 he was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society and became Curator of the Manchester Museum, a post he held until 1890. In 1870 he also began lecturing at Owens College, eventually becoming its first Professor of Geology in 1874. He held leadership roles in several societies, including the Manchester Geological and Mining Society (president three times) and the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society (president in two periods). He was also involved with the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and the Cambrian Archaeological Association.

Dawkins was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1867. He served as president of the Anthropological Section of the British Association in 1882 and of the Geological Section in 1888, and he was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1880.

In archaeology, Dawkins led early digs in Somerset at Wookey Hole Caves, where he investigated a hyena den, and at Aveline’s Hole, expanding its entrance. He showed that Paleolithic humans used Mendip cave sites. He also studied Creswell Crags and Windy Knoll in Derbyshire, where he demonstrated that exotic animals lived in England before the ice ages, including bones of bison, cave hyena, cave bear, and a large cat. The bison bones have been dated to about 37,300 years ago.

Beyond his research, Dawkins helped with large projects such as a proposed tunnel under the Humber and a Channel Tunnel project. He advised on a survey of coal under Kent, presenting evidence in 1887 that such coal did exist.

He was a strong advocate for workers’ rights and education, especially for miners, and he supported funding for education and for improvements in housing and compensation for people affected by subsidence from salt mines near Northwich, Cheshire. He also donated money to the Manchester Museum’s extension.

Dawkins died in 1929 at the age of 91. His widow, Lady Boyd Dawkins, donated his library of about 400 works to Buxton, where they are kept in the Boyd Dawkins Reference Room at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, along with his medals, photographs, and other personal items. He published many books and papers, with his archaeological work remaining among his most lasting legacies.