William Johnson Sollas
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Hertha & Igerna
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Sollas Family of Talbot House, Blackrock
William Johnson Sollas married Helen Coryn
born 30.05.1849 16.11.1874 born 14.03.1847
Birmingham Exeter Redruth, Cornwall
died 20.10.1936 (87) died 26.11.1911 (64)
Oxford
William Johnson Sollas son of William Henry Sollas a ship owner and Emma Wheatley.
William was educated at Imperial College London and Cambridge University. He married
Helen Coryn daughter of William John Coryn of Weston super Mare in 1874. He was a
lecturer at Birmingham University and promoted to Professor in 1880. He resigned his
position in 1883 to take up a post in Dublin. William was Professor of Geology at Trinity
College between 1883 and 1897 and while in Ireland he carried out research in Bray and
Howth on trace fossils from the Cambrian rocks. He also worked for the geological
survey of Ireland and led the 1896 Funafuti Coral Reef (the Pacific Ocean) Boring
Expedition of the Royal Society. They lived at Clyde Road and at Talbot House from 1890
to 1892. The family were living at Gloucestershire in 1881 and in 1897 he accepted the
post of Professor of Geology at the University of Oxford. They were in Oxford 1901 and
1911. He published over 180 papers and three books. Helen died on 26.11.1911 at
Oxford.
1 Hertha Beatrice Coryn Sollas born 29 Aug 1875 in Cambridge. She attended
Alexandra College and in 1893 took 1st place in Ireland in the intermediate exams.
She then attended Newnham College, Cambridge, and received a PhD from the
University of Heidelberg. She translated Eduart Suess' book The Face of the Earth
(Das Antlitz der Erde) in 1906. She was a Christian Science Practitioner and died a
spinster on 04.06.1970 at Haringey, London and left 32K in personal estate.
2 Igerna Brunhilda Johnson Sollas born 16 Mar 18787 at Dawlish, Devon. She
attended Alexandra College and in 1893 took 2nd place in Ireland in the
intermediate exams. She next attended Newnham College, Cambridge and was
awarded a degree. She was active as a fellow and lecturer in zoology. The sponge
genus 'Igernella' is named after her. She became a Christian Science Practitioner
and gave up her work on animal genetics and biology. She died in Northampton
in 1965.
William married secondly married Amabel Nevill Jeffreys Moseley, a widow and daughter
of John Gwyn Jeffreys on 17.12.1914 at St Giles Parish Church, Devon Oxford. Amabel
died in 1928 and William died 20.10.1936 at Oxford. His theory was that the earliest
hominids would have manifested features of both human being and ape. This theory was
upheld when in between 1912 and 1914, museum palaeontologist Arthur Smith
Woodward and solicitor Charles Dawson claimed the fossils of a human skull and ape-like
jawbone had been found in Piltdown in Sussex. Doubts were immediately raised about
the authenticity of the find but it would be 1953 before it was proved to be a chimera. It
turned out to be the skull of a human and ape’s jaw that had been spliced together and
aged with chemicals. In 1978, William's successor to the chair at Oxford, J A Douglas
credited William Sollas with this hoax, though this was never proven.
© June Bow & Karen Poff - November 2023
Return to Talbot House
William Johnson Sollas married Helen Coryn
born 30.05.1849 16.11.1874 born 14.03.1847
Birmingham Exeter Redruth, Cornwall
died 20.10.1936 (87) died 26.11.1911 (64)
Oxford
William Johnson Sollas son of William Henry Sollas a ship owner and Emma Wheatley.
William was educated at Imperial College London and Cambridge University. He married
Helen Coryn daughter of William John Coryn of Weston super Mare in 1874. He was a
lecturer at Birmingham University and promoted to Professor in 1880. He resigned his
position in 1883 to take up a post in Dublin. William was Professor of Geology at Trinity
College between 1883 and 1897 and while in Ireland he carried out research in Bray and
Howth on trace fossils from the Cambrian rocks. He also worked for the geological
survey of Ireland and led the 1896 Funafuti Coral Reef (the Pacific Ocean) Boring
Expedition of the Royal Society. They lived at Clyde Road and at Talbot House from 1890
to 1892. The family were living at Gloucestershire in 1881 and in 1897 he accepted the
post of Professor of Geology at the University of Oxford. They were in Oxford 1901 and
1911. He published over 180 papers and three books. Helen died on 26.11.1911 at
Oxford.
1 Hertha Beatrice Coryn Sollas born 29 Aug 1875 in Cambridge. She attended
Alexandra College and in 1893 took 1st place in Ireland in the intermediate exams.
She then attended Newnham College, Cambridge, and received a PhD from the
University of Heidelberg. She translated Eduart Suess' book The Face of the Earth
(Das Antlitz der Erde) in 1906. She was a Christian Science Practitioner and died a
spinster on 04.06.1970 at Haringey, London and left 32K in personal estate.
2 Igerna Brunhilda Johnson Sollas born 16 Mar 18787 at Dawlish, Devon. She
attended Alexandra College and in 1893 took 2nd place in Ireland in the
intermediate exams. She next attended Newnham College, Cambridge and was
awarded a degree. She was active as a fellow and lecturer in zoology. The sponge
genus 'Igernella' is named after her. She became a Christian Science Practitioner
and gave up her work on animal genetics and biology. She died in Northampton
in 1965.
William married secondly married Amabel Nevill Jeffreys Moseley, a widow and daughter
of John Gwyn Jeffreys on 17.12.1914 at St Giles Parish Church, Devon Oxford. Amabel
died in 1928 and William died 20.10.1936 at Oxford. His theory was that the earliest
hominids would have manifested features of both human being and ape. This theory was
upheld when in between 1912 and 1914, museum palaeontologist Arthur Smith
Woodward and solicitor Charles Dawson claimed the fossils of a human skull and ape-like
jawbone had been found in Piltdown in Sussex. Doubts were immediately raised about
the authenticity of the find but it would be 1953 before it was proved to be a chimera. It
turned out to be the skull of a human and ape’s jaw that had been spliced together and
aged with chemicals. In 1978, William's successor to the chair at Oxford, J A Douglas
credited William Sollas with this hoax, though this was never proven.
© June Bow & Karen Poff - November 2023
Return to Talbot House