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© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
The inaugural address of the president, reprinted from the Isle of Man Times of 26 January, 1889, stated that the society was founded 'with the object of promoting the study of geology in this Island, and of assisting the geological survey of Great Britain and Ireland in the work that is on the eve of being carried out by that department in the Isle of Man'. Alfred Haviland, MRCS, late lecturer at St. Thomas' Hospital, London on the geographical distribution of disease, after disclaiming any expertise in geology as merely 'a simple student of that science for the sake of the light it sheds upon physical geography, climatology, and the distribution of diseases' went on to give a resume of the works of the society's 'honoured predecessors' in Manx geology in chronological order, starting with Bishop Wilson's estimation of the height of Snaefell by barometrical calculations at some point in his long episcopacy of 1698 -1755, and ending with the seminal visit of the British Association in Manchester to the Island in 1887, and, in the year of the new society's formation, 1888, the publication of 'A list of Minerals found in the Isle of Man' by Sir W. Warrington Smyth, FRS.
The continuous interest of British scholars in Manx geology, described in Haviland's review, which included a list of publications, tantamount to an informal Manx geological bibliography, was the background to the late nineteenth century surge in geological studies of the Island. Of this society's group of educated amateur geologists, many, like Haviland and Thomas Grindley, president and secretary respectively, were English incomers, some, like the Reverend John Quine and S.K. Broadbent, editor of the Examiner were Manx. Active, professional geologists, Sir William Warrington Smyth, FRS, J.G. Goodchild and J. Horne of the Geological Survey, all at the first general meeting, were elected as corresponding members of the society.
From Eva Wilson's invaluable unpublished 'Bibliograpny of the geology of the Isle of Man', which she kindly made available to me, I have located the only four known surviving Transactions of the society published in January, 1889, February 1889, March 1889 and January 1990, all in the Manx National Heritage Library. These reflect the full range of the activities planned for the society on which Haviland elaborated in his letter of support to the Director General of the Geological Surveys of Great Britain and Ireland, Dr. Archibald Geikie, in the body of his inaugural address. He exhorted the members to help him in the great endeavour. 'We are not an exclusive society; we shall welcome all workers to our ranks - the quarryman, the miner, the navvy, the brickmaker, the stonecutter and all those engaged on the soil or subsoil of the Isle of Man - as heartily as the most learned archaeologist .
This drive for members with practical experience was designed to strengthen the society's ability to 'collect all facts available for the use of the gentlemen whom you may appoint for the geological survey of the Isle of Man', regarding rock specimens, fossils, well sections, railway sections, quarries, 900 mines, glacial and post-glacial deposits, boulders, local lore and nomenclature, economic geology, physical geology and scenery. Geikie responded in a letter expressing his thanks and his expectation of a start on the survey later that year, 1889.
The Transactions record a programme of events ranging from the reading and publishing of learned papers to stimulating group visits to the important collection of fossils made by J.G.Cumming in his fifteen years of geological study on the Island, held in some disorder at King William's College, and the valuable and interesting collections of diamonds and other geological specimens belonging to 'the Diamond King', Joseph Mylchreest, a successful Manx prospector and businessman in South Africa, and to frequent field trips to interesting areas. The society co-operated amicably, it would seem, for the two years of its fully recorded existence with two slightly senior cultural bodies with very similar interests, the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society, founded in 1879 and the Manx Museum and Ancient Monuments Trustees, set up by Government in 1886 to preserve the material heritage of the Island by the establishment of a national museum.
In this two years period many enthusiasts were members of both societies, papers were read and occasionally published in the transactions of each society, and both were addressed and led on excursions by the visiting professionals increasingly interested in preparations for the promised survey.
Fifteen years later than the first projected completion date of 1889, G.W.Lamplugh'sThe Geology of the Isle of Man. A Memoir of the Geological Society of the United Kingdom was published in 1903. Wholly written by Lamplugh, with the exception of the petrographical descriptions by W.W.Watts, it embodied the results of his survey of the Island begun in 1892 and completed in 1897. The preface by the Director of the Survey Office, J.J.H.Teall, mentions with gratitude 'the admirable researches of J.G.Cumming' and the manuscript reports of old mine workings by Sir W.W.Smith and thanks the Rev.S.N. Harrison of Ramsey, a leader of the Geological Section of the IOMNHAS. for 'the loan of his specimens from his fine collection of glacial shells, and for other friendly services' There is no mention of the Manx Geological Society or any of its leading members.
M.N.H.L.,Transactions of the Manx Geological Society, January 1889, February
1889, March 1889,
Isle of Man newspapers,Isle of Man Times, 26 January 1889, et passim
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