WILLIAM GUYBON

See also:

• ATHERSTONE
• WILLIAM GUYBON ATHERSTONE (1813-1898)

ATHERSTONE (1813-1898)  , British geologist, one of the pioneers in South African geology, was born in 1813, in the district of Uitenhage, Cape Colony . Having qualified as M.D. he settled in early life as a medical practitioner at Grahamstown, subsequently becoming F.R.C.S . In 1839 his interest was aroused in geology, and from that date he " devoted the leisure of a long and successful medical practice " to the pursuit of geological science . In 1857 he published an account of the rocks and fossils of Uitenhage (the latter described more fully by R . Tate, Quart . Journal Geol . Soc., 1867) . He also obtained many fossil reptilia from the Karroo beds, and presented specimens to the British Museum . These were described by Sir Richard Owen . Atherstone's identification in 1867 as a diamond of a crystal found at De Kalk near the junction of the Riet and Vaal rivers, led indirectly to the establishment of the great diamond industry of South Africa . He encouraged the workings at Jagersfontein, and he also called attention to the diamantiferous neck at Kimberley . He was one of the founders of the Geological Society of South Africa at Johannesburg in 1895; and for some years previously he was a member of the Cape parliament .

He died at Grahamstown, on the 26th of

June 1898 . See the obituary by T . Rupert Jones, Natural Science, vol. xiv . (January 1899) .