Edward Greenly (3 December 1861 – 4 March 1951) was an English geologist known for his a detailed geological survey of the island of

Anglesey Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...

. ''The Geology of Anglesey'' was published in two volumes in 1919 and followed by a one-inch geological map in 1920.E. N. K. Clarkson
"Greenly, Edward (1861–1951)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford University Press 2004); online edn, Jan 201
accessed 26 April 2016
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Biography

Edward Greenly was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, the only child of a doctor, Charles Hickes Greenly, and his wife, the former Harriet Dowling. He attended

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , hea ...

, then

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, where he studied petrology with

Thomas George Bonney Thomas George Bonney (27 July 1833 – 10 December 1923) was an English geologist, president of the Geological Society of London. Career Bonney was born in Rugeley, Staffordshire, England, the eldest son of the Reverend Thomas Bonney, headma ...

and received his

D.Sc. Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

Stein, Gordon. (1980). ''An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism''. Prometheus Books. p. 185. Greenly left school and joined the Geological Survey in 1889, and spent the next six years surveying the northwest

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland S ...

. He resigned the Survey in 1895. Soon, he began an independent survey of Anglesey which took him until 1910 to complete, and nine more years to get the results published. During the survey, he named

mélange In geology, a mélange is a large-scale breccia, a mappable body of rock characterized by a lack of continuous bedding and the inclusion of fragments of rock of all sizes, contained in a fine-grained deformed matrix. The mélange typically cons ...

, the geological phenomenon previously described as crush

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of ...

. The two-volume product of his years of work, ''The Geology of Anglesey'', was published in 1919. The accompanying map was published the following year, delayed by

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

.Jack Treagus
"Greenly's Geological Map of Anglesey"
''Geoscientist Online'' 20(4)(April 2010). In addition to the Anglesey work, Greenly co-authored a text on surveying (''Methods of Geological Surveying'', 1930), and an autobiography, ''A Hand Through Time: Memories Romantic'' (1938).

Personal life

Greenly met Ann Bernard (1852–1927) when he was very young, in 1875. They married in 1891. Annie studied geology informally, and was a contributor to Edward's work as an assistant and editor. She created the massive index to the Anglesey survey. (Her handwritten draft, with papers strung on thread, is now in the

National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

.)T. P. T. Williams
"The Role of Annie Greenly in the Elucidation of the Geology of Anglesey"
in Cynthia V. Burek and Bettie Higgs, ''The Role of Women in the History of Geology'' (Geological Society of London 2007): 319–324. After the Anglesey survey, the Greenlys lived in Bangor, and worked together on a small textbook, ''The Earth'', right before Annie's death in 1927. Edward died in 1951, age 90. His remains are with his wife's, in a churchyard at Llangristiolus. Greenly endowed the Annie Greenly Fund with the Geological Society, to support mapping projects. Bangor University holds a small collection of papers and letters belonging to Greenly. He contributed several articles to the

Rationalist Press Association The Rationalist Association, originally the Rationalist Press Association, is an organization in the United Kingdom, founded in 1885 by a group of freethinkers who were unhappy with the increasingly political and decreasingly intellectual tenor ...

Annual.

Christ myth theory

Greenly was an advocate of the

Christ myth theory The Christ myth theory, also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, or the Jesus ahistoricity theory, is the view that "the story of Jesus is a piece of mythology", possessing no "substantial claims to historical fact". Alternative ...

. He was the author of the booklet ''The Historical Reality of Jesus: A Concise Statement of the Problem'' (1927). It contains a summary of the arguments supporting the non-historicity of Jesus found in the works of J. M. Robertson,

Arthur Drews Christian Heinrich Arthur Drews (; November 1, 1865 – July 19, 1935) was a German writer, historian, philosopher, and important representative of German monist thought. He was born in Uetersen, Holstein, in present-day Germany. Biography Drew ...

Thomas Whittaker Thomas or Tom Whittaker may refer to: *Thomas Bartlett Whitaker (born 1979), American criminal, former Texas Death Row inmate *Thomas Whittaker (martyr) (1614–1646), English Roman Catholic priest *Thomas Whittaker (metaphysician) (1856–1935), E ...

, and

Paul-Louis Couchoud Paul-Louis Couchoud (; July 6, 1879 at Vienne, Isère – April 8, 1959 at Vienne), was a French philosopher, a graduate from the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris, a physician, a man of letters, and a poet. He became well known as a ...

. The booklet was reprinted in

Gordon Stein Gordon Stein (April 30, 1941 – August 27, 1996) was an American author, physiologist, and activist for atheism and religious skepticism. Biography Stein was born in New York to Jewish parents, and from an early age took an interest in science ...

's ''An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism'' in 1980. Stein considered it the "best short summary that exists of the vastly complex problem of determining whether Jesus, called Christ, was a historical human being or only a concretion of earlier myths given human form."

Honours

*Honorary member of the Geological Societies of Edinburgh and Liverpool *Honorary member of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society *

Lyell Medal The Lyell Medal is a prestigious annual scientific medal given by the Geological Society of London, equal in status to the Murchison Medal. This medal is awarded based on one Earth Scientist's exceptional contribution of research to the scientific ...

of the Geological Society (1920) *Medal of the Liverpool Geological Society (1933) *Honorary doctorate by the

University of Wales , latin_name = , image = , caption = Coat of Arms , motto = cy, Goreu Awen Gwirionedd , mottoeng = The Best Inspiration is Truth , established = , , type = Confederal, non-member ...

(1920)

Publications

''The Geology of Anglesey''
(1919)
''A Short Summary of the Geological History of Anglesey''
(1922)
''The Earth, Its Nature and History''
(1927)
''The Historical Reality of Jesus: A Concise Statement of the Problem''
(1927) *''Methods in Geological Surveying'' (1930) ith_Howel_Williams.html" ;"title="Howel_Williams.html" ;"title="ith Howel Williams">ith Howel Williams">Howel_Williams.html" ;"title="ith Howel Williams">ith Howel Williams*''A Hand Through Time: Memories Romantic and Geological; Studies in the Arts and Religion and the Grounds of Confidence in Immortality'' (1938)

References

External links

*
A late portrait of Greenly
by Scottish painter Gertrude Mary Coventry (1886–1964), in the collection of Bangor University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenly, Edward 1861 births 1951 deaths Christ myth theory proponents 20th-century British geologists Freethought writers Geology of Anglesey People educated at Clifton College Scientists from Bristol 19th-century British geologists Lyell Medal winners