Charles Stewart Middlemiss

Charles Stewart Middlemiss FRS (1859, Kingston upon Hull – 11 June 1945, Royal Tunbridge Wells)^[1] was a British geologist who worked in British India and the Princely States.

After education at Caistor Grammar School, Middlemiss matriculated in 1878 at St John's College, Cambridge and graduated there in 1881 with B.A. and then spent two more years in private study of geology.^[2] On 21 September 1883 he joined the Geological Survey of India as Assistant Superintendent.

During his service Middlemiss did field work in the Himalayas, the Salt Range and Hazara; in Coimbatore, Salem and the Vizagapatam Hill Tracts in the Madras Presidency; in the Shan States and Karenni in Burma; in Bombay, Central India and Rajputana, and finally in Kashmir. During spells at Headquarters he was Curator of the Geological Museum in 1898–1899, and in charge of the Headquarters Office during 1907–1908.^[3]

In the service of the Geological Survey of India he became in 1889 Deputy Superintendent and in 1895 Superintendent, retiring in April 1917. He then went into the service of the Maharaja of Kasmir and Jammu. He was given the title of Superintendent, Mineral Survey of Jammu and Kashmir State, and held this position from 1917 to 1930. He returned to the UK in 1930 and settled at Crowborough. He died in hospital in the nearby city of Tunbridge Wells.

In Nainital on 6 June 1887 he married Martha Frances Wheeler, whose father was Major-General Frederick Wheeler.^[4]

Awards and honours

• 1900 — Fellow of the Geological Society of London
• 1914 — Lyell Medal
• 1916 — C.I.E.
• 1921 — F.R.S.

Selected publications

• The Geology of Hazara and the Black Mountain. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India. 26. Calcutta. 1896. 
• The Kangra Earthquake of 4th April 1905. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India. 38. Calcutta. 1910. 
• The Geology of Idar State. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India. 44, Part 1. Calcutta. 1921. 

References