Background
Dawkins was born at Buttington Vicarage in Montgomeryshire on 26 December 1837. He attracted attention at age five by collecting fossils from the local colliery spoil heaps. Soon after this, his family moved to Fleetwood in Lancashire, where he attended Rossall School. He again attracted attention by adding fossils from the local boulder clay to his earlier collection. After leaving school, he attended Jesus College, Oxford graduating with a second in Classics and a first in Natural Sciences.
On leaving Oxford University in 1862, he joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain where he spent the next seven years working on the areas of Kent and the Thames Valley. In 1869, he was elected a member of the Geological Society and appointed Curator of the Manchester Museum, a position he held until 1890. In 1870, he took a further appointment as a lecturer at Owens College, Manchester. eventually becoming the first Professor of Geology in 1874.
Dawkins became involved with the Manchester Geological and Mining Society and was its President on three occasions: 1874–75, 1876–77 and 1886–87. He was also President of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society from 1885 to 1887 and again from 1900 to 1902. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1867 and acted as President of the Anthropological Section of the British Association in 1882 and the Geological Section in 1888. Dawkins was knighted for "services to geology" in 1919. He died in 1929, aged 91.
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