Biography

Thomas George Bonney (1833-1923), clergyman and geologist, was born at Rugeley, Staffordshire, on 27 July 1833, the eldest of the ten children of the Revd Thomas Bonney, headmaster of Rugeley grammar school, and his wife, Eliza Ellen. After attending Uppingham School, where he was head boy, Bonney went up to St John's College, Cambridge, in 1852. He became twelfth wrangler in 1856 and obtained a second class in classics. His health deteriorated after graduation, but he recuperated in the Alps and took up a position at Westminster School in 1857, teaching mathematics. He also studied for holy orders, being ordained deacon in 1857 and priest in 1858. In 1859 Bonney was elected to a fellowship at St John's, and in 1861 he returned to his college as junior dean, becoming a tutor in 1868. In 1868 he began to teach geology at St John's and was appointed college lecturer in geology in 1869, thereby initiating the notable association of that college with geology. In 1877 he was appointed to the Yates-Goldsmit chair of geology at University College, London, a position which he occupied concurrently with that at St John's. However, in 1881 he left Cambridge for Hampstead to enable him to give time to his work as assistant general secretary of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. While living in Hampstead, Bonney also wrote regularly for The Standard. In 1901 he retired from his London chair; he returned in 1905 to Cambridge, where he chose to continue teaching geology on a semi-formal basis. Bonney joined the Geological Society in 1860, was secretary (1878–84) and president (1884–6). He received the society's Wollaston medal in 1889. He was president of the Mineralogical Society (1884–6), of the Alpine Club (1883), of Section C of the British Association (1886), and of the association itself for its Sheffield meeting (1910). He was elected FRS in 1878, served on the society's council on three occasions, and was vice-president from 1898 to 1899. He held the ScD degree of Cambridge University, honorary DScs from Dublin and Sheffield University, and an honorary LLD from Montreal University. He died at his home, 9 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge, unmarried, on 9 December 1923.

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