William Symonds

Rev William Samuel Symonds (1818-15th September 1887) lived at Pendock, Worcestershire between 1845 and 1883. He was the father-in-law of Joseph Dalton Hooker, Director of Kew. He was "Gifted and interested in all nature and natural sciences". He was a member of the Woolhope and Malvern Field Clubs and contributed to the Cotteswold Club Proceedings papers on the drifts of the Severn (Volume III), Avon Wye and the Usk as well as the Geology and Archaeology of the Malvern District (Volume VI).

Part of his collection of fossil mammalia is in Gloucester City Museum, including an impressive collection of Pleistocene mammals from King Arthur's Cave on the Great Doward. Other collections are in Worcester Museum; Hereford Museum and B.G.S. Keyworth.

He was the author of "Stones of the valley(1857), Old Bones or Notes for Young Naturalists" (1864) and "Record of the Rocks" (1872). He also wrote on the bone-caves of Belgium, the sandstones of Elgin, Scotland, the geology of Auvergne and Ardecge, France and other geological topics.


Updated and corrected 20.6.1999