Warington Wilkinson Smyth

Sir Warington Wilkinson Smyth (26 August 1817 – 19 June 1890) was a British geologist.

Smyth was born at Naples, the son of Admiral W H Smyth and his wife Annarella Warington. His father was engaged in the Admiralty Survey of the Mediterranean at the time of his birth. Smyth was educated at Westminster School and Bedford School. He then went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where was a member of the Cambridge crew in the 1839 Boat Race and graduated BA in 1839. Having gained a travelling scholarship he spent more than four years in Europe, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, paying great attention to mineralogy and mining, examining coal-fields, metalliferous mines and salt-works, and making acquaintance with many distinguished geologists and mineralogists.

On his return to England in 1844 Smyth was appointed mining geologist in the Geological Survey, and in 1851 lecturer at the Royal School of Mines, a post which he held until 1881 when he relinquished the chair of mineralogy but continued as professor of mining. In later years he became chief mineral inspector to the Office of Woods and Forests, and also to the Duchy of Cornwall. He investigated the Roman gold mine at Dolaucothi and published a short paper on his observations in 1846 in Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Subsequently he gave lectures on gold mining as a result of the then gold rushes in California and Australia in the 1850s.

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