Hollingworth Geology Notes

Notes on geology taken whilst a student at Clare College, Cambridge. Also other miscellaneous notes and copies of letters.

Sydney Ewart Hollingworth, (1899-1966), geologist, was born on 7 November 1899 in Floore, Northamptonshire, the son of Charles Hollingworth, a foreman in the army ordnance department, and his wife, Alice Masters. After attending Northampton School he joined the army shortly before the end of the First World War; he saw active service and was wounded. After demobilization he entered Clare College, Cambridge, where he took a first in both parts of the natural sciences tripos and was awarded the Harkness scholarship in 1921. At Cambridge he came under the strong influence of John Edward Marr, the Woodwardian professor, and Alfred Harker, reader in petrology.

After the second world war, Hollingworth became Yates-Goldsmid professor of geology at University College, London. There it quickly became apparent that, as well as being an exceptional fieldworker, he was also an inspiring teacher. He increased the department's space, equipment, and standing, and also embarked upon new areas of research, firstly in the Caledonian mountains of Norway, and later in Chile. Here he began to relate his long-standing interest in geomorphology to the stages of enrichment of the porphyry-type copper deposits. He died on 23 June 1966 in University College Hospital after attending his last London University senate meeting before retiring.

He served on its council of the Geological Society of London for a total of seventeen years, was secretary from 1949 to 1956, twice its vice-president (1956-1958 and 1962-1964), and president between 1960 and 1962. His work was recognized with the award from the Lyell fund in 1938, and the Murchison medal in 1959. He was active in promoting the engineering geology group of the society, and was himself a consultant to the Metropolitan Water Board. In 1964 the Geologists' Association, for which he had led a number of field meetings, took the unusual step of electing him an honorary member.

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