Chapter 9 1896–9: Frustrations, further travel and publications

Abstract

During 1896–7, Gregory became dissatisfied with the bleak prospects of promotion at the NHM. He had been an Assistant for 10 years, during which he had achieved a DSc, RGS and GSL awards, and a phenomenal output of nearly 80 publications, a number of which were monographs in their own right. He had also gained international recognition for his work, especially in the fields of palaeontology and East African geology. However, he was still only a Second Class Assistant and not the most senior (NHM archives), earning just over £200 a year with an uncertain prospect of promotion to a more senior position. Dr Henry Woodward, the Keeper, was due to retire at the end of 1901, when Dr A. Smith Woodward became Keeper, opening the position of Assistant Keeper, but besides Gregory there were other Assistants who were more senior having spent longer at the NHM. Bather (who in fact became Assistant Keeper) also had a very good claim on the post as by 1900 he too had a prolific publication record, with for instance, about 50 papers on the Echinoderms alone (Lang 1934). Gregory was not a man to hang about awaiting dead men's shoes, and his lack of an Oxbridge degree did not make an academic appointment certain. The Chair of Geology at Oxford was advertised on 10 November 1896; Gregory only decided to apply at the very last minute (27 January 1897), using Sir Archibald Geikie as a referee. It would, he thought, be a chance to re-organize the Oxford University Museum and also allow him to undertake more work on Palaeozoic rocks and fossils than he could at the NHM where, as an Assistant, he was still subject to direction. Initially he had decided not to apply because ‘I saw little chance of getting the …