Born:             1820, Pictou, Nova Scotia

Died:              1899

Field:             Geologist

Geologist, co-founder and first president of the Royal Society of Canada. Sponsored into Royal Society of London by Charles Darwin. Numerous awards, including knighthood. Landmark book: Acadian Geology. Was offered a position at the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, but was persuaded to remain at McGill (of which he was the 5th president) by the promise of funding by Peter Redpath for a major natural history museum, which remains a prestigious McGill landmark. National Historic Person of Canada 1943.

Bibliography

Marble, Allan E.: Nova Scotians at Home and Abroad.  Lancelot Press, Windsor, Nova Scotia, 1977.

MacBeath, G. 2004. Great Maritime achievers in science and technology.  Goose Lane Editions, Fredericton, New Brunswick. 127 pp.