Howchin, Walter (1845 - 1937)

Summary

Walter Howchin was a Methodist minister whose interest in geology began while serving as minister in parishes in the Tyne Valley, United Kingdom, before coming to Australia in 1881. The geology of South Australia absorbed his attention after arriving in Adelaide. His research resulted in the first subdivision of the Adelaide Geosyncline succession and recognition of late Precambrian glaciation. He taught for over 30 years at the South Australian School of Mines and Industry and the University of Adelaide. Having been made an Honorary Professor at the University in 1918 he retained that title after his retirement in 1920. Howchin published prolifically, among his most important publications being a series of papers of the glacial rocks of the Mount Lofty Ranges, and the books The geology of South Australia (1918) and The stone implements of the Adelaide tribe of Aborigines (1934).

Details

Chronology

1864

Career event - Ordained as Methodist Minister

1864 - 1881

Career position - Minister in Tyne Valley, United Kingdom

1878 - 1937

Award - Fellow, Geological Society of London

1881

Life event - Migrated to South Australia

1883

Career position - Foundation Member and Vice-Chairman (jointly), Field Naturalists' Section, Royal Society of South Australia

1883 - 1937

Career position - Member, Royal Society of South Australia

1886 - 1889

Career position - Editor, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia

1886 - 1901

Career position - Secretary, Adelaide Children's Hospital

1889 - 1904

Career position - Lecturer, South Australian School of Mines and Industry

1893 - 1896

Career position - Editor, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia (sometimes jointly with Ralph Tate)

1894 - 1896

Career position - President, Royal Society of South Australia

1901 - 1933

Career position - Editor, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia

1902 - 1918

Career position - Lecturer in Geology and Palaeontology, University of Adelaide

1907

Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

1913

Career position - President, Section C (Geology and Mineralogy), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1913

Award - Mueller Medal, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1918 - ?

Career position - Honorary Professor, University of Adelaide

1920

Life event - Retired

1921 -

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Geography), Australian National Research Council

1929

Award - Sir Joseph Verco Medal, Royal Society of South Australia

1934

Award - Lyell Medal, Geological Society of London

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Walter Howchin - Records, 1885 - 1920, MS 008; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide

• Douglas Mawson - Records, 1887 - 1956, MSS 0009; Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide. Details
• Walter Howchin - Records, 1865 - 1921, SR 92 H853p; Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide. Details

South Australian Museum Archives

• Walter Howchin - Records, 1933 - 1934; South Australian Museum Archives. Details

State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana

• Royal Society of South Australia - Records, 1853 - 1969, SRG 10; State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Smith, Ailie, Adolph Basser Library Manuscript Collection, eScholarship Research Centre, 2012, http://www.eoas.info/basser_browse.html. Details

Books

• Howchin, Walter, The geography of South Australia, including the Northern Territory : historical, physical, political and commercial: with an introduction by J.W. Gregory (Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1909), 320 pp. Details
• Howchin, Walter, The geology of South Australia (Adelaide: Government Printer, 1918), 543 pp. Details
• Howchin, Walter, The stone implements of the Adelaide tribe of Aborigines, now extinct (Adelaide: Gillingham Printers, 1934), 94 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Branagan, David F., 'Some Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Australian Geological Clerics' in Geology and Religion: a History of Harmony and Hostility (London: Geological Society of London, 2009), pp. 171-96. Details
• Ludbrook, N. H., 'Howchin, Walter (1845-1937), geologist and clergyman' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 377-378. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090378b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Andrews, E.C., 'The Heroic Period of Geological Work in Australia.', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, lxxvi (1942), 96-128. Details
• Cooper, Barry J., '"Snowball Earth": the Early Contribution from South Australia', Earth Sciences History, 29 (2010), 121-45. Details
• Howchin, W., 'Australian glaciations', Journal of Geology, 20 (3) (1912), 193-227. https://doi.org/10.1086/621950. Details
• Howchin, W., 'Growth of Scientific Knowledge [in South Australia]. in Centerary History of South Australia', Royal Geographical Society of Australia (1936), 316-350. Details
• Selby, Jonathan, 'Walter Howchin (1845 - 1937)', Terra nova, 3 (5) (1991), 568-70. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7965177. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/47126414. Details
• 'Howchin, Walter (1845-1937)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1468197. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Howchin, Walter - Ms 8', in Listing of Adolph Basser Library holdings, Australian Academy of Science, 1994, http://www.science.org.au/basser/manuscript-collection/ms008.html. Details

See also

• Cooper, Barry J.; and Jago, James B., 'Early Understanding of the Cambrian in South Australia: 1839-1910', in 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, R. R. (Melbourne: Earth Sciences History Group, GSA Inc., 2007), pp. 20-5.. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details