RGSC ‘William Bolitho Medal’ – do you know any previous winners? The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall presents a famous award called the William Bolitho Medal. The medal is presented for geological excellence and/or for services to geology and services to RGSC and was awarded in most years from 1896 until 1978 and occasionally since then. The most recent three awards were made to Colin Bristow, and the late Chris Page and Neil Plummer. The names of medal recipients were published routinely in the RGSC Transactions until the late 1970s. After then, it becomes harder to find who the medal was awarded to. If you can fill in any of the gaps in the table with information on previous recipients, please do get in contact. The medal started as a result of a bequest of £500 made by William Bolitho of Ponsandane who was Treasurer of the RGSC and died in 1894. After the second world war, in 1946, the Society seems to have refreshed the medals and prizes including changing the main medal from gold to silver-gilt, although it is still often called ‘gold’. A Silver Medal was added to recognise excellent publications.
The two sides of the Bolitho medal (courtesy of Colin Bristow)
The list of medal winners (see Table) contains some famous historical geological and mineralogical names, including a few Directors of the Geological Survey, Presidents of the Geological Society of London and Geologists’ Association, and some eminent SW England geologists, including Ussher, as well as some stalwarts of the RGSC. The first female recipient was Lady Warrington Smyth in 1905. This seems an enlightened move but the award was actually given for the achievements of her late husband, Sir Warington Wilkinson Smyth, MA, FRS, FGS who had died fifteen years earlier in 1890!? The first female full recipient of the medal was Eileen Mary Lind Hendriks PhD BSc DIC FGS, in 1949, who made key contributions to resolve the stratigraphy and structure of Cornwall and Devon (as RGSC members may recall from an RGSC lecture a couple of years ago and a fieldtrip to Pendower). There was another female winner the following year, 1950, when Miss A. Williams was honoured for her ‘intensive work, organisation and conduct of the Society\’s affairs’. In 1962, current RGSC and Geoconservation Group member, Owen A. Baker received the Silver Medal (v19 pt4) for his dissertation on Ore Mining in the Tamar Valley. Owen also received the RGSC’s Colenso Prize for minerals and rocks the previous year. Recipients of the William Bolitho Medal and the William Bolitho Silver Medal (marked silver)
| Year | Name | Year | Name |
| 1896 | R. Etheridge FRS | 1946 | Mr. J. Robson BSc |
| 1897 | Howard Fox FGS | 1946 | Mr P.H.J. Hammett ACSM (silver) |
| 1898 | Joseph Henry Collins FGS | 1947 | Mr C.E. Leese BSc |
| 1899 | F.W. Millett FRMS | 1947 | Mr S.R.R. Hood (silver) |
| 1900 | Sir C. Le Neve Foster FRS,etc. | 1948 | Sir Arthur Russell MBE |
| 1901 | Thomas Clark | 1949 | Miss E.M.L. Hendriks PhD BSc DIC FGS |
| 1902 | Dr Richard Pearce FGS | 1950 | Miss A. Williams |
| 1903 | W.A.E. Ussher FGS | 1951 | D.E. Owen PhD BSc FGS |
| 1904 | J.G. Enys FGS | 1952 | Ken F.G. Hosking Esq. MSc |
| 1905 | Lady Warington Smyth | 1953 | Mr G.A. Garceau FGS |
| 1906 | A.K. Barnett FGS | 1954 | – |
| 1907 | U. Green FGS | 1955 | Mr T. Pryor DSO MIMM |
| 1908 | T.R. Polwhele FGS | 1956 | Rev. G.C. Sara ARCS |
| 1909 | Rev. D.G. Whitley | 1956 | Flt./Lt. A.E. Batstone FGS (silver) |
| 1910 | Dr G.J. Hinds FHB,etc. | 1957 | Mr A.W.G. Kingsbury FGS |
| 1911 | C. Reid FRS,etc. | 1958 | Mr J.P.R. Polkinghorne AMIMM |
| 1912 | G. Barrow FGS | 1958 | Mr E.H. Kliskey ACSM (silver) |
| 1913 | J.B. Hill FGS | 1959 | Dr A.T.J. Dollar BSc MIMM FGS |
| 1914 | H. Dewey FGS | 1960 | Dr Gilbert Wilson MSc FGS |
| 1915 | Harford .J. Lowe FGS | 1961 | Dr A.A. Saukov |
| 1916 | A. Smith Woodward FRS,etc. | 1962 | Dr F. Coles Phillips MA FGS |
| 1917 | J.S. Flett FGS | 1962 | O.A. Baker (silver) |
| 1918 | D.A. MacAlister FGS | 1963 | Dr F.G.H. Blyth MSc PAIWE FGS |
| 1919 | F.J. Stephens FGS | 1963 | M. Jolt |
| 1920 | E.H. Davison FGS,etc. | 1964 | Professor R.S. Waters MA |
| 1921 | Not awarded | 1965 | – |
| 1922 | R.A. Thomas | 1966 | Rev. B.B. Clarke MA MSc |
| 1923 | W. Colenso | 1967 | Dr W.R. Dearman |
| 1924 | J.B. Cornish | 1968 | – |
| 1925 | J.M. Coon | 1969 | – |
| 1926 | R.H. Rastall, scb FGS FIMM | 1970 | Professor M.R. House |
| 1927 | A. Brammall PhD MSc DIC AIMM | 1970 | Robert J. Tregay (silver) |
| 1928 | J.B. Scrivener MA FGS | 1971 | Professor G.F. Mitchell |
| 1929 | J.A. Howe OBE | 1971 | Mr R.J. Gregory (silver) |
| 1930 | J.G. Lawn MIMM | 1972 | ??? |
| 1931 | Leonard James Spencer MA ScDFRS | 1973 | Sir Kingsley Dunham FRS Feng |
| 1932 | R. Hansford Worth M.Inst.C.E FGS | ?? | |
| 1933 | H.G. Dines ARSM FGS | 1976 | G.J. Shrimpton BSc MSc(Eng) DIC ACSM CEng FIMM FGS |
| 1934 | K.S. Sandford PhD MA FGS. | ?? | UNKNOWN in this period |
| 1935 | Dr Bernard Smith MA ScD FRS | ?? | |
| 1936 | F.C. Cann MIMM | 198? | Joyce Newport |
| 1937 | E.B. Bailey DSC FRS | ?? | Colin Bristow? |
| 1938 | 0.T. Jones DSC FRS | 2014 | Colin Bristow PhD |
| 1939 | ?? | 2016 | Chris Page PhD |
| 1940 | -45 no award | 2020 | Neil Plummer |
Acknowledgement: the Transactions research was done on pdf copies of the Transactions scanned by Dr Charlie Moon.
Contact: Frances Wall, f.wall@exeter.ac.uk