Dr. G. F. Herbert Smith

Abstract

DR. G. F. HERBERT SMITH retires from the keeper-ship of minerals in the British Museum (Natural History) on May 26. He joined the staff of the Mineral Department under Sir Lazarus Fletcher in 1897 and devoted himself particularly to mathematical crystallography and to the development of scientific methods for the identification of gem-stones. An account of his earlier career and of his scientific work appeared in these pages in 1935 (135, p. 948). In 1921 he was appointed assistant secretary and later secretary, of the British Museum (Natural History). This was a loss to the Mineral Department, but an undoubted gain to the Museum as a whole. During his fourteen years in this office he worked for the improvement of the equipment and buildings of the Museum, and the increase of numbers and betterment of conditions of employment of its staff, and for the prestige at home and abroad of a great scientific institution. During his short period of office as keeper of minerals since 1935, he has continued the improvement in display methods initiated by his predecessor. The finely illuminated wall-cases at the entrance to the mineral gallery and the nitrogen-filled case housing the great Cranbourne meteoric iron have all been completed under his supervision. With the office of secretary to the Museum he took over the secretaryship of the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves and he has been chairman of the Wild Plant Conservation Board since 1931. These activities will not cease with his retirement from the Museum, and it may be hoped that time may also be found for a resumption of scientific work interrupted by many years of administrative duties. Quite apart from his scientific work, Dr. Herbert Smith has taken a very active part in Civil Service affairs. He was one of the honorary secretaries of the Society of Civil Servants in 1918-1925, vice-president in 1925-1928, and president in 1928-1932. He has been honorary secretary and treasurer of the Civil Service Arts Council since 1924.