Richard Hansford Worth (5 November 1868 – 11 November 1950) of Plymouth,

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. Devo ...

was a civil engineer, geologist, archaeologist and writer on

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...

. He was the author of numerous papers published by the

Devonshire Association The Devonshire Association (DA) is a learned society founded in 1862 by William Pengelly and modelled on the British Association, but concentrating on research subjects linked to Devon in the fields of science, literature and the arts. History ...

some of which became the basis of the book ''Worth’s Dartmoor'' published posthumously.

Early life

R. Hansford Worth was the son of Lydia Amelia Davies and the geologist, antiquarian and historian Richard Nicholls Worth. He was educated at Plymouth High School for Boys (later called

Plymouth College Plymouth College is a co-educational independent school in Plymouth, Devon. History The school was established in 1877. In 1896 Plymouth College bought Mannamead School (founded in 1854), and was temporarily known as Plymouth and Mannamead ...

). After leaving school he joined the engineering staff at Great Western Railway at Paddington. He returned to Plymouth in 1890 and set up in private practise as a civil engineer. In 1907 Worth married Miss Annie E. Kingwell of South Brent. Worth adopted many of the interests of his father including a passion for geology, archaeology and Dartmoor. He was a founding member of the Marine Biological Society, a member of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

and the Mineralogical Society, and a fellow of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. He joined the Plymouth Institution in 1888 and he shortly afterwards presented his first paper to them on ''Early Western Railways''. The following year he presented one of his first papers on archaeology on Dartmoor, ''The Moorland Plym'', a paper detailing

cists A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle Eas ...

that had been discovered along the

River Plym The River Plym is a river in Devon, England. It runs from Dartmoor in the centre of the county southwest to meet the River Meavy, then south towards Plymouth Sound. The river is popular with canoeists, and the Plym Valley Railway runs alongsi ...

. In 1904 he became the President of the Plymouth Institution and he was made an Honorary Member in 1937. For many years he was their Curator of Geology and Petrology.

Dartmoor and the Devonshire Association

Worth followed his father in becoming very active in the

which he joined in 1891. In 1893 Robert Burnard and

Sabine Baring-Gould Sabine Baring-Gould ( ; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,2 ...

started archaeological excavations at

Grimspound Grimspound is a late Bronze Age settlement, situated on Dartmoor in Devon, England. It consists of a set of 24 hut circles surrounded by a low stone wall. The name was first recorded by the Reverend Richard Polwhele in 1797; it was probably ...

. The co-option of Richard Nicholls Worth, R. Hansford Worth and Dr Gray led to the formation of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee of the Devonshire Association. Worth drew the plan of Grimspound in the committee's first report. The committee carried out very numerous excavations of prehistoric round houses during the 1890s up until 1906. Worth became the secretary of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee and played a major role in the work of the committee which disbanded after his death in 1950. The committee was responsible for the restoration of many Dartmoor stone rows and stone circles. The restorations being carried out to protect the ancient monuments from being robbed for stone. In 1879 Worth's father had been involved in forming the Barrow Committee of the Devonshire Association which published annual reports. After his father's death, Worth picked up and continued these annual reports with his own research. This was also the case with a series of reports started by his father on ''The Stone Rows of Dartmoor'' that documented the many stone rows that were being discovered on Dartmoor at the time. In 1906 he started his annual ''Climate Reports'' which along with the annual ''Barrow Reports'' continued until his death in 1950. In 1930 Worth became President of the Devonshire Association and in that year he submitted a major paper on ''The Physical Geography of Dartmoor''. In the obituary published by the Devonshire Association in 1951 it was estimated that during his time writing for them he had written on more than forty subjects.

Worth's Dartmoor

Worth had intended to gather his writings on Dartmoor into a book and a number of the articles written for the ''Transactions of the Devonshire Association'' were written with the intention of becoming chapters for a book on Dartmoor. He died before being able to complete this task but he left a sum of money and instructions in his will for the publication of such a book with the proceeds of the sales to go to the Devonshire Association. The first version was published privately in 1953 and it was re-published in 1967.

R H Worth Award

Another legacy executed at the wishes of Worth as expressed in his will is the annual R H Worth award established by the Geology Society in 1955. It was to confer recognition of achievements in outreach, public engagement and/or education carried out by an individual or an institution. This award is still made annually.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worth, Richard 1868 births 1950 deaths English geologists English archaeologists Dartmoor Writers from Devonport, Plymouth Engineers from Devon