Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Pilgrim, (Henry) Guy Ellcock (England 1875-1943)
geology, vertebrate paleontology

Photo courtesy of The Royal Society of London

Guy Pilgrim's career as a geologist and paleontologist was a most successful and influential one. Joining the Geological Survey of India soon after the turn of the century, Pilgrim worked as both a geologist and paleontologist in the Persian Gulf region, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and northern India. He is especially known for the work he did in the Siwalik range, foothills of the Himalayas in India and Nepal. There, he investigated and clarified the stratigraphical record of the underlying Tertiary rock units, including describing their vertebrate faunas in a long series of well-read publications. Pilgrim's paleontological work in the Siwaliks was important zoogeographically as well, as it was one of the main sources for the theories of W. D. Matthew on paleofaunal evolution in the Old World, and an influence on many other thinkers, including George Gaylord Simpson. When Pilgrim retired from the Geological Survey of India in 1930 he returned to England, where he spent most of the rest of his life going through, and writing up, his earlier collections.

--born in Stepney, Barbados, on 24 December 1875.
--1901: B.S., University College, London
--1908: D.Sc., University College, London
--1902-1920: works for the Geological Survey of India; field work in Arabia, Persia, Baluchistan, Bhutan, the Punjab and Simla Hills
--1905-1930: palaeontologist, Geological Museum, Calcutta (at various times)
--1908: publishes his The Geology of the Persian Gulf and Adjoining Portions of Persia and Arabia
--1909: curator of the Geological Museum, Calcutta
--1910: publishes "Preliminary Note on a Revised Classification of the Tertiary Freshwater Deposits of India" in the Records of the Geological Survey of India
--1913: publishes "The Correlation of the Siwaliks with Mammal Horizons of Europe" in the Records of the Geological Survey of India
--1914-1919: decorated for war service in Persia and Mesopotamia
--1920-1930: superintendent, Geological Society of India
--1925: made a fellow of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; president, Geological Section of the Indian Science Congress
--1925: publishes his The Geology of Parts of the Persian Provinces of Fars, Kirman and Laristan
--1928: publishes his The Structure and Correlation of the Simla Rocks, with W. D. West
--1930: made a supernumerary staff member of the Geology Department of the British Museum (Natural History)
--1931: publishes his Catalogue of the Pontian Carnivora of Europe in the Department of Geology, with A. T. Hopwood
--1932: visits the United States
--1937: publishes "Siwalik Antelopes and Oxen in the American Museum of Natural History" in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
--1939: publishes his The Fossil Bovidae of India
--1943: elected to the Royal Society of London
--dies at Upton, Berkshire, England, on 15 September 1943.

--Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. 100(3-4) (1945): lxxv-lxxvii.
--Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 4(13) (1944): 577-590.
--American Journal of Science, Vol. 242(2) (1944): 105-106.