In Memoriam: Joseph Lomas

Abstract

It is a sorrowful task to have to record the loss of a dear friend and excellent geologist, cut off in the prime of health and vigour by a railway accident at E1 Uchain, in Algeria, on the 17th December, 1908. Mr. Lomas came of a family long-established in Derbyshire in the neighbourhood of Bugsworth. His school career was marked by a long series of successes, resulting in his entering the Royal School of Mines and Normal School of Science as a Teacher in Training, and it was here that, as fellow-students under Huxley and Judd, a lifelong and intimate friendship was formed between him and the present writer. They passed through the courses together, and their names were never separated in the examination lists. Upon the completion of his career at the schools, Mr. Lomas took up the position of Lecturer in Science under the Liverpool School Board, and subsequently assumed the full control of their organisation for science teaching. Besides this, he gave courses of lectures at University College, which were continued down to the time of his death. He entered fully into the scientific life of the city, and his fresh enthusiasm and high ability as a teacher have had a most important influence in stimulating interest in geology throughout the district. The Liverpool Geological Society elected him to the presidential chair in 1896, and he was selected as the geologist best qualified to again occupy that position in the year 1909, when the Society would celebrate ...