Eileen Mary Lind Hendriks (1887–1978) was a geologist specialising in the
geology of Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
and
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
. In 1930, she attempted to become the first female geologist employed by the
Geological Survey of Great Britain
The British Geological Survey (BGS) is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research.
The BGS h ...
, but her application was unsuccessful.
Early life
Hendriks was born in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
, Warwickshire on 3 November 1887, the daughter of Henry and Helena Hendricks. Her father was an estate agent and surveyor. She was privately educated and showed an early interest in geology when she attended public lectures by
Charles Lapworth
Charles Lapworth FRS FGS (20 September 1842 – 13 March 1920) was a headteacher and an English geologist who pioneered faunal analysis using index fossils and identified the Ordovician period.
Biography
Charles Lapworth was born at Faring ...
in Birmingham.
Geologist
Hendriks graduated from the
Aberystwyth University in 1919 with a BSc, later completing a PhD at
Imperial College London
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
. Between 1926 and 1928 she was temporarily employed by the Geological Survey of Great Britain to assist in the preparation of a catalogue of the Survey's photographs.
This work resulted in the publication, in 1928, of ''Classified Geological Photographs: From the Collection of the Geological Survey of Great Britain''.
Little is known about her career away from the Geological Survey, but archive material indicates that she found it difficult to find paid work as a geologist. In a letter written in 1941, held in the British Geological Survey Archive, she referred to “the absolute dearth of openings in her main subject”.
Despite this, she maintained her geological research, and was elected a Fellow of the
Geological Society in 1945.
She worked extensively on the geology of Devon and Cornwall, publishing a number of papers up until the 1970s on aspects of geological structure,
lithostratigraphy
Lithostratigraphy is a sub-discipline of stratigraphy, the geological science associated with the study of strata or rock layers. Major focuses include geochronology, comparative geology, and petrology.
In general, strata are primarily igneous ...
and
palaeontology. In 1958 she was awarded the Lyell Fund from the Geological Society
given to scientists based on the significance of their published research. In 1965 she was awarded the R H Worth prize by the Geological Society of London,
given to reward those who make distinguished contributions to geology as amateurs.
Hendriks left an extensive archive of personal and professional material to the British Geological Survey. The Hendriks collection includes geological notebooks, geological diagrams and notes, university certificates, correspondence from the 1890s to the 1970s, testimonials, diaries, photographs and watercolour paintings,
including a self-portrait.
Publications
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hendriks, Eileen
20th-century British geologists
English women geologists
1887 births
1978 deaths
Alumni of Imperial College London
Alumni of Aberystwyth University
Scientists from Birmingham, West Midlands
20th-century British women scientists