He worked for the Geological Survey of India before returning to Scotland for a career in University administration and other work.
From his Wikipedia entry - shared under CC license
Thomas Holland was born on 22 November 1868 in Helston, Cornwall.
In 1884, Thomas won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Science, graduating with a first class degree in Geology. The dean at the Royal College of Science, Thomas Henry Huxley, made a great impression on Holland. He stayed on as an assistant to Professor John Wesley Judd and was awarded a Berkeley Fellowship at Owens College, Manchester, in 1889
At South Kensington, Holland took a First-Class Associateship in Geology with Honours (1888), winning also the Murchison Medal and Prize.
In 1890, Holland was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India and curator of the Geological Museum and Laboratory. In 1903, he was appointed Director of the Geological Survey of India and in 1904 he was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1908, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) for his services to the Geological Survey of India.
He returned to Britain in 1910.
Holland was Rector of Imperial College London from 1922 to 1929 and Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1929 to 1944, during which time he took on the GA Presidency.
His Presidential address was on 'The Geography of Minerals'
In it, he discussed the possible lead famine that might occur in the future, given the rate at which it was being used.
Derek Spooner was the GA President in 2000. I contacted him but he had no further comment to make. :)
Holland was active during the 2nd World War, when there were several caretaker Presidents of the GA who had extendeed terms, and the Association had some challenges - more on those to come in some future posts on the way that the GA dealt with the challenges of a second global conflict of the century. Fleure was a constant of course during that period, as outlined in Balchin's Centenary volume.
His GA obituary was published in 1947, and written by Alan G Ogilvie.
A little brief so far this entry.
References
Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Henry_Holland
I amended this page to add his GA Presidency as usual.
Royal Society obituary: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rsbm.1948.0021
A later picture taken during his time in Edinburgh: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sir-thomas-henry-holland-18681947-94072
Ogilvie, Alan G. “SIR THOMAS H. HOLLAND, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S.—1868–1947.” Geography, vol. 32, no. 3, 1947, pp. 139–139. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565037.
Presidential Address: HOLLAND, THOMAS H. “THE GEOGRAPHY OF MINERALS.” Geography, vol. 24, no. 1, 1939, pp. 1–9. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40560828.
If anyone knows more about this President's contributions to the GA, please get in touch.
Image source: Wikimedia - CC licensed
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