John Parkinson
| John Parkinson | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Parkinson, John.jpg | |||||||||
| Born | 1872 | ||||||||
| Died | 1947 | ||||||||
| Residence |
c/o Liberian Development Co., Monrovia, Liberia 30 Lensfield Road, Cambridge [1907] The Dene, Great Shelford, Cambridge [1909] | ||||||||
| Occupation | geologist | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
1906.08.03 Proposed by A.C. Haddon; seconded by T.A. Joyce
1912.10.29 [it was resolved] that Mr John Parkinson be forthwith apprised of his arrears and asked to pay as otherwise his literature must be stopped
Notes From Elsewhere
John Parkinson was born in London in 1872, and studied engineering and geology at University College, London. In 1894, the 22 year old visited Australia on a geological field trip. Three years later, he married Eleanor f. Whitlock. They eventually had one son and one daughter.
During 1897, Parkinson undertook field trips in Great Britain and northern Italy. The focus of many of his papers was petrological. Geological studies took Parkinson around the world in 1900. He visited Sri Lanka, India, and Burma (now Myanmar). This was followed by a trip to the Canadian Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone Park in Montana.
In 1902 and 1903, Parkinson lectured in geology and geography at Harrow in London. Admitted to St John's College, Cambridge, as an advanced student, he received his BA by dissertation in 1903. Later that year, he was appointed leader of the Imperial Institute Mineral Survey of Southern Nigeria, and spent the next three years in West Africa. Parkinson next accepted the position of geologist with the Liberian Development Company. He published several anthropological papers written during his tenure. Parkinson continued to be active in West Africa, specializing in economic geology, particularly the search for hydrocarbon resources.
Among his hobbies he counted writing, and successfully published his first novel, A Reformer by Proxy, in 1909. Two years later his second novel, Other Laws, appeared. It was likely a fictionalized account of his travels. Africa drew him back in 1911, this time to the east coast. He investigated metamorphic rocks in the East Africa Protectorate, in collaboration with the Magadi Soda Company. This was hot work in the arid, lava-covered stretches between Lake Magadi and the Kapiti Plains, just north of the border of German East Africa.
During the First World War, Parkinson's scientific expertise was recognized by the Colonial Office in London, which sent him to the Northern Frontier District and Jubaland of the East African Protectorate. This assignment also took him to Abyssinia, currently Ethiopia. He undertook a water reconnaissance for the Magadi Soda Company in 1914 and 1915, which would prove valuable to any troop movements in the region.
Prior to the end of the war Parkinson became chief of geological staff in both Trinidad and Venezuela. By 1920, he had spent five years in Trinidad. He had earned his MA and, in 1923, his ScD, and was a Fellow of the Geological Society and the Royal Geographical Society.
Parkinson unquestionably had a wandering lifestyle, in which his wife and family probably rarely participated. As a field geologist with three decades of experience, he was accustomed to the rigors of the tropics. This made him an excellent choice for the British Museum East Africa Expedition.
... dinosaur expeditions ... Hobley ... Migeod [from African Dinosaurs Unearthed: the Tendaguru Expeditions by Gerhard Maier]
Publications
External Publications
A Note on the Petrology and Physiography of Western Liberia, West Coast of Africa
John Parkinson, M.A., F.G.S.
The Dinosaur in East Africa
Parkinson, John
House Publications
Related Material Details
RAI Material
Other Material
Natural History Museum: letters etc
