Richard Hansford Worth (5 November 1868 – 11 November 1950) of

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

was a civil engineer, geologist, archaeologist and writer on

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

. He was the author of numerous papers published by the

Devonshire Association The Devonshire Association (DA) is a learned society founded in 1862 by William Pengelly and modelled on the British Association, but concentrating on research subjects linked to Devon in the fields of science, literature and the arts. History ...

some of which became the basis of the book ''Worth’s Dartmoor'' published posthumously.

Early life

R. Hansford Worth was the son of Lydia Amelia Davies and the geologist, antiquarian and historian

Richard Nicholls Worth Richard Nicholls Worth (19 July 1837− 3 July 1896) an English geologist and historian of the City of Plymouth in Devon. Life Worth was apprenticed in 1851 at the ''Devonport and Plymouth Telegraph'', becoming a member of the staff in 1858. In 1 ...

. He was educated at Plymouth High School for Boys (later called Plymouth College). After leaving school he joined the engineering staff at

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

at Paddington. He returned to Plymouth in 1890 and set up in private practise as a civil engineer. In 1907 Worth married Miss Annie E. Kingwell of South Brent. Worth adopted many of the interests of his father including a passion for geology, archaeology and Dartmoor. He was a founding member of the Marine Biological Society, a member of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a Charitable organization, charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters ar ...

and the Mineralogical Society, and a fellow of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe, with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. He joined the Plymouth Institution in 1888 and he shortly afterwards presented his first paper to them on ''Early Western Railways''. The following year he presented one of his first papers on archaeology on Dartmoor, ''The Moorland Plym'', a paper detailing cists that had been discovered along the

River Plym The River Plym is a river in Devon, England. It runs from Dartmoor in the centre of the county southwest to meet the River Meavy, then south towards Plymouth Sound. The river is popular with canoeists, and the Plym Valley Railway runs alongside ...

. In 1904 he became the President of the Plymouth Institution and he was made an Honorary Member in 1937. For many years he was their Curator of Geology and Petrology.In 1932 he was awarded the Bolitho Medal of the

Royal Geological Society of Cornwall The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall is a geological society originally based in Penzance, Cornwall in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1814 to promote the study of the geology of Cornwall, and is the second oldest geological society in ...

Dartmoor and the Devonshire Association

Worth followed his father in becoming very active in the

which he joined in 1891. In 1893 Robert Burnard and

Sabine Baring-Gould Sabine Baring-Gould (; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 pu ...

started archaeological excavations at

Grimspound Grimspound is a late Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age settlement, situated on Dartmoor in Devon, England. It consists of a set of 24 hut circles surrounded by a low stone wall. The name was first recorded by the Reverend Richard Polwhele in 1 ...

. The co-option of

, R. Hansford Worth and Dr Gray led to the formation of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee of the Devonshire Association. Worth drew the plan of Grimspound in the committee's first report. The committee carried out very numerous excavations of prehistoric round houses during the 1890s up until 1906. Worth became the secretary of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee and played a major role in the work of the committee which disbanded after his death in 1950. The committee was responsible for the restoration of many Dartmoor stone rows and stone circles. The restorations being carried out to protect the ancient monuments from being robbed for stone. In 1879 Worth's father had been involved in forming the Barrow Committee of the Devonshire Association which published annual reports. After his father's death, Worth picked up and continued these annual reports with his own research. This was also the case with a series of reports started by his father on ''The Stone Rows of Dartmoor'' that documented the many stone rows that were being discovered on Dartmoor at the time. In 1906 he started his annual ''Climate Reports'' which along with the annual ''Barrow Reports'' continued until his death in 1950. In 1930 Worth became President of the Devonshire Association and in that year he submitted a major paper on ''The Physical Geography of Dartmoor''. In the obituary published by the Devonshire Association in 1951 it was estimated that during his time writing for them he had written on more than forty subjects.

Worth's Dartmoor

Worth had intended to gather his writings on Dartmoor into a book and a number of the articles written for the ''Transactions of the Devonshire Association'' were written with the intention of becoming chapters for a book on Dartmoor. He died before being able to complete this task but he left a sum of money and instructions in his will for the publication of such a book with the proceeds of the sales to go to the Devonshire Association. The first version was published privately in 1953 and it was re-published in 1967.

R H Worth Award

Another legacy executed at the wishes of Worth as expressed in his will is the annual R H Worth award established by the Geology Society in 1955. It was to confer recognition of achievements in outreach, public engagement and/or education carried out by an individual or an institution. This award is still made annually.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worth, Richard 1868 births 1950 deaths English geologists English archaeologists People associated with Dartmoor Writers from Devonport, Plymouth Engineers from Devon