Tawney, Edward Bernard., 1841-1882

Edward Tawney was born in 1840, the third child of the Reverend Richard Tawney, Vicar of Willoughby, Warwickshire, who had been a fellow of Magdalene College. On the death of his father, young Edward was sent to Clifton, near Bristol to live with his uncle, Dr Bernard.

Between 1860 and 1863 Tawney trained at the Royal School of Mines (London) and gained Diplomas in Geology and Mining. He gained a Royal Scholarship, Duke of Cornwalls scholarship, the De la Beche Medal for mining, and the Edward Forbes Medal for proficiency in Natural Sciences whilst there.

In 1872 he was appointed Assistant Curator at Bristol Museum. His specialisms were Palaeontology and Stratigraphy and he taught these amidst geology classes at the University College of Bristol from 1876. He concurrently held the post of Curator at Bristol Museum and Library.

He worked in Bristol up until 1878, when Thomas McKenny Hughes, Woodwardian Professor, offered him a position at Cambridge as his Assistant. He was hired to sort out the Woodwardian Museum rock collection, and pioneered the preparation of rock slices (microscope slides) from Adam Sedgwicks Welsh collections. This aided the identification and classification of the samples, adding further scientific value to them. Alfred Harker was later to continue and massively expand this work a few years after Tawneys early death.

Tawney was a skilled linguist reading French, Italian and German. This often helped him in the study of Continental geological research. As a result he was appointed the General Secretary of the International Geological Congress British Committee.

He was awarded an honorary M.A. on 4 December 1879 at Cambridge. In the same year, he was made a Fellow of Trinity College. As well as his curatorial duties, he also taught classes in Palaeontology and Petrology at the University. From his base in the Woodwardian, he published many short notes, particularly in the Geological Magazine. Tawney published microscopic examinations of the rocks collected by Adam Sedgwick. In association with his colleague Keeping, he published on the Headon Hill Section on the Isle of Wight. Worked with Henry Keeping on these Tertiary sections and fossils.

Ill-health saw him travel to Menton in France with the then Professor of Mineralogy. He was familiar with French geology and was a Member of the Geological Society of France. He died at Menton, France on 30 December 1882 and was buried there (TBC). His obituary in the Geological Magazine, was written by Professor Thomas Mckenny-Hughes.

From the guide to the The Papers of Edward Bernard Tawney, 1864-1882, (Cambridge University: Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences)