William Guybon Atherstone (1814–1898) was a medical practitioner, naturalist and

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

, one of the pioneers of South African

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

and a member of the Cape Parliament.

Life

He arrived in South Africa with his parents as

1820 Settlers The 1820 Settlers were several groups of British colonists from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, settled by the government of the United Kingdom and the Cape Colony authorities in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in 1820. Origins After th ...

. His father, Dr John Atherstone, was appointed District Surgeon of

Uitenhage Uitenhage ( ; ), officially renamed Kariega, is a South African town in the Eastern Cape Province. It is well known for the Volkswagen factory located there, which is the biggest car factory on the African continent. Along with the city of Port El ...

in 1822. William, a young man of wide interests and outstanding ability, received his first training at Dr

James Rose Innes Sir James Rose Innes (8 January 1855 – 16 January 1942) was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1914 to 1927 and, in the view of many, its greatest ever judge. Before becoming a judge he was a member of the Cape Parliament, the Cape Colo ...

's academy in

, being at first apprenticed to his father and then serving as Assistant-Surgeon in the Sixth Frontier War 1834-1835. In 1836 he studied medicine in Dublin and was admitted as M.R.C.S. the following year, obtaining an MD in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, Germany in 1839, returning to Grahamstown in the same year and joining his father in practice. He carried out research in lung-sickness, horse-sickness and tick-borne fever and was in 1847 the first surgeon outside Europe and America to perform an amputation using an anaesthetic. This operation, on 16 June 1847, was performed on the Albany Deputy Sheriff, Mr F Carlisle, and was completely successful. On recovering from the anaesthetic, the patient said "What? My leg is off? Impossible - I can't believe it!....It's the greatest discovery ever made". In 1839 his interest was aroused in

, and from that date he devoted the leisure resulting from a long and successful medical career to the pursuit of geological science. In 1857 he published an account of the

rocks In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's ...

and

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

. He also studied many fossil

reptilia Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

from the

Karroo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi- desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ex ...

beds, and sent specimens to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. These were described by Sir

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Owe ...

. Atherstone's identification, in 1867, with the help of

Peter MacOwan Peter MacOwan (14 November 1830 in Hull, England – 30 November 1909 in Uitenhage, Cape Province) was a British colonial botanist and teacher in South Africa. Early life and education He was the son of Peter McOwan, a Wesleyan minister fr ...

and HG Galpin, of a crystal found at De Kalk near

Hopetown Hopetown is a town which lies at the edge of the Great Karoo in South Africa's Northern Cape province. It is situated on an arid slope leading down to the Orange River. The first diamond discovered in South Africa, the Eureka Diamond, was fo ...

, as the

Eureka Diamond The Eureka Diamond was the first diamond discovered in South Africa. It originally weighed , and was later cut to a cushion-shaped brilliant, which is currently on display at the Mine Museum in Kimberley. The discovery of diamonds in South Afric ...

- the first found in Africa - led indirectly to the establishment of the

diamond industry Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, bu ...

of South Africa. He encouraged the workings at

Jagersfontein Jagersfontein is a small town in the Free State province of South Africa. Origin The original farm on which the town stands was once the property of a Griqua Jacobus Jagers, hence the name Jagersfontein. He sold the farm to C.F. Visser in 1854. ...

, and he also called attention to the diamandiferous pipe at Kimberley. He was partly responsible for the foundation of the Grahamstown library, botanical garden and, in 1855, the

Albany Museum The Albany Museum, South Africa is situated in Grahamstown in South Africa, is affiliated to Rhodes University and dates back to 1855,Chinsamy, Anusuya. (1997). "Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa." ''Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs''. Edited by ...

. He traveled widely in the eastern Cape,

Namaqualand Namaqualand (khoekhoe: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoe people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into ...

and the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

, collecting minerals, fossils, plant specimens and seeds, sending material to Hooker at Kew. He was a friend of

Andrew Geddes Bain Andrew Geddes Bain (baptised 11 June 1797 – 20 October 1864), was a South African geologist, road engineer, palaeontologist and explorer. Life history The only child of Alexander Bain and Jean Geddes, both of whom died when Bain was still a ...

of pass-building fame. He was made F.R.C.S. in 1863 and F.G.S in 1864. He represented Grahamstown as Member of Parliament from 1881 to 1883 whence he was elected to the Legislative Council where he served until 1891. He is commemorated in the genus ''Atherstonea'' Pappe and in the names of various fossil reptiles. He was one of the founders of the

Geological Society of South Africa The Geological Society of South Africa (GSSA) is a learned society for geological science that was founded in 1895, making it one of the oldest such societies in Africa. The GSSA publishes the peer-reviewed scientific journal, the ''South Afri ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

in 1895. He died at Grahamstown, on 26 June 1898.

Family

*father: John Atherstone *25 January 1793

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

, England. He died in 1853 at Table Farm,

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. Makhanda is the lar ...

*mother: Elizabeth Damant *c1785. She died at Table Farm,

She married John Atherstone in 1811 in St John's, Westminster, London, England. *siblings: #John Craddock Atherstone. #William Guybon Atherstone #Catherine Damant Atherstone #Elizabeth Atherstone was born in 1817. #Emily Atherstone #John Frederick Korsten Atherstone #Bliss Ann Atherstone #Caroline Atherstone His son was the railway engineer Guybon Atherstone.

Notes

References

* * * * * * *

External links

Atherstone family
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Atherstone, William Guybon 1814 births 1898 deaths 1820 Settlers 19th-century South African scientists Fellows of the Geological Society of London Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons People from Makhanda, Eastern Cape South African geologists South African surgeons