Person
Selwyn, Alfred Richard Cecil (1824 - 1902)
CMG FRS
- Born
- 28 July 1824
Kilmington, Somerset, England - Died
- 18 October 1902
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - Occupation
- Geologist
Summary
Alfred Selwyn was appointed Victorian Government Geologist in 1852, taking up his position in early 1853. With the establishment of the Geological Survey in 1855 he was in addition appointed Director of the Survey. His work was to survey the geological resources of Victoria, particularly gold and coal, and, in setting up the Survey, to train geologists and surveyors on his staff. The results of his work included numerous reports and over 60 geological maps printed in colour by highly skilled lithographic printers. He was dogged persistently by the instability generated by frequent changes of government and inadequate resources. Selwyn was one of the casualties of the Victorian Government's retrenchments in 1869, as was the Geological Survey. He lost his job and the Survey was abolished. Selwyn went to Canada and enjoyed a highly distinguished career as Director of the Canadian Geological Survey from 1869 to 1894. A number of the geologists and surveyors on his staff in Victoria themselves went on to distinguished careers in other colonies. The Selwyn Range in the Canadian Rocky Mountains is named in his honour.
Details
Chronology
- 1845
- Career event - Joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain
- 1852 - 1855
- Career position - Government Geologist, Victorian Chief Secretary's Department
- 1854 - 1855
- Career position - Member of Council, Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science
- 1854 - 1855
- Career position - Member of Council, Philosophical Society of Victoria
- 1855 - 1859
- Career position - Member, Philosophical Institute of Victoria
- 1855 - 1860
- Career position - Government Geologist, Victorian Surveyor General's Department
- 1855 - 1869
- Career position - Director, Geological Survey of Victoria
- 1856 - 1857
- Career position - Vice-President, Philosophical Institute of Victoria
- 1858 - 1860
- Career position - Member, Board of Science, Colony of Victoria
- 1859 - 1869
- Career position - Member, Royal Society of Victoria
- 1862 - 1864
- Career position - Member of Council, Acclimatisation Society of Victoria
- 4 Feb 1868
- Career event - Associate (AssocInstCE), Institution of Civil Engineers, London [very briefly an Associate]
- 1869
- Career position - Government Geologist, Victorian Department of Crown Lands and Survey
- 1869 - 1894
- Career position - Director, Geological Survey of Canada
- 1871 - 1902
- Award - Fellow, Geological Society, London
- 1874 - 1902
- Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)
- 1876
- Award - Murchison Medal, Geological Society, London
- 1878
- Award - Knight of the Legion of Honour
- 1882
- Award - Elected to the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
- 1882 - 1902
- Award - Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 1884
- Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales
- 1886
- Award - Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)
- 1894
- Life event - Retired
Related entries
Colleague
Published resources
Books
- Murphy, Sean, The Cranbourne meteorite (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly publishing, 2023), 164 pp. Details
Book Sections
- Branagan, D. F.; Townley, K. A., 'Selwyn, Alfred Richard Cecil (1824-1902), geologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 6: 1851 - 1890 R - Z, Bede Nairn, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976), pp. 102-103. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060117b.htm. Details
- Zeller, Suzanne, 'Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn,1824-1902' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details
Conference Proceedings
- The History of Geology in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century: the Story in Australia, and in Victoria, from Selwyn and McCoy to Gregory 1853 to 1903 edited by Pierson, Roger (Melbourne: Earth Sciences History Group, Geological Society of Australia, 2007), 69 pp. Details
Journal Articles
- Alcock, F. J., 'A Century in the History of the Geological Survey of Canada', Canadian Mining Journal, 68 (1947). Details
- Ami, H. M., 'Memorial or Sketch of the Life of the Late Dr. A. R. C. Selwyn', Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 10 (1904). Details
- Branagan, D. F., 'Alfred Selwyn - 19th century trans-Atlantic connections via Australia', Earth sciences history, 9 (2) (1990), 143-57. Details
- Darragh, Thomas A., 'The Geological Survey of Victoria Under Alfred Selwyn, 1852-1868', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (1) (1987), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9870710001. Details
- Dunn, E. J.; and Mahony, D. J., 'Biographical Sketch of the Founders of the Geological Survey of Victoria', Bulletins of The Geological Survey of Victoria, 23 (1910), 48. Details
- Gillbank, Linden, 'The Origins of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria: Practical Science in the Wake of the Gold Rush', Historical Records of Australian Science, 6 (3) (1986), 359-374. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9860630359. Details
- Lapworth, C., 'Obituary - Alfred Charles Selwyn, C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S. [In Anniversary Address.]', Proceedings of the Geological Society in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 59 (1903), lxi-lxiii. Details
- Woodward, H., 'Eminent Living Geologists', Geological Magazine, 6 (1899). Details
- Zeller, Susanne and Branagan, David, 'Australian-Canadian Links in a Geological Chain: Sir William Logan, Dr Alfred Selwyn and Henry Y. L. Brown', Special edition of Scientia Canadensis, 17 (1&2) (1994), 71-102. Details
Parliamentary papers
- Board on Claims to Reward for the Discovery of the Building Stone, Building stone (Melbourne: John Ferres, Government Printer, 1858), 9 pp. https://pov.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_GB/parl_paper/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:26038/one. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2744361. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/42205113. Details
- Geological Society of Australia, Australian geology hall of fame, Earth Sciences History Group, Geological Society of Australia, 2022. https://www.gsa.org.au/Public/Public/Specialist_Groups/ESHG_Sub_Pages/ESHG_Biographies.aspx?hkey=1bfc25ca-efd5-4f91-9536-dabf175139ce. Details
- Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 'Application: 2361, 1868', Civil Engineer Membership Forms, 1818-1930, ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/3585/. Details
- 'Selwyn, Alfred R C (1824-1902)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-525312. Details
See also
- Board of Science [Establishment and initial Board members] (Melbourne: Victorian Government, 1858), 1065 pp, https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1858&class=general&page_num=1065. Details
- Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_s.html. Details
- Enever, Jim, 'A story of human endeavour: the Cape Paterson coal field, Victoria', Journal of Australasian Mining History, 15 (2017), 21-46. Details
- Johns, R.K. ed., History and role of government geological surveys in Australia (Adelaide: South Australian Government Printer, 1976), 111 pp. Details
- Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023
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