LEWIS, WILLIAM JAMES (1847 - 1926), mineralogist

Born 10 January 1847 at Llanwyddelan, Montgomeryshire, second son of John Lewis, cleric. From Llanrwst grammar school he went up in 1865 to Jesus College, Oxford, and took firsts in mathematical moderations 1867, and final schools 1868, and in natural science 1869. In 1872 he was elected Fellow of Oriel - having been elected under the old statutes, and having remained unmarried, he was able to retain his Fellowship till death, i.e. for fifty-four years. After a short period of schoolmastering, and a spell of research in crystallography at Cambridge, he received, in 1875, an appointment in the British Museum, but resigned it in 1877 on account of ill-health. He returned to Cambridge in 1879 to lecture on mineralogy, incorporating in 1880 at Trinity College; in 1881 the University elected him Professor of mineralogy. He wrote little, apart from his standard work A Treatise on Crystallography, 1899. In 1909 he became F.R.S. He died 16 April 1926.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

• T. Iorwerth Jones, 'The Contributions of Welshmen to Science', The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1932-3 (with list of papers)

Published date: 1959

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