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{{Short description|Anglo-Irish geologist}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2017}}{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Thomas Oldham
|image = Thomas oldham.jpg
|image_size = 200px
|caption = Thomas Oldham
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1816|05|04|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Dublin]]
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1878|07|17|1816|05|04|df=y}}
|death_place = [[Rugby, Warwickshire|Rugby]]
|residence =
|nationality =
|field = [[Geology]]
|work_institutions =
|alma_mater =
|doctoral_advisor =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for = [[mineral]] [[Oldhamite]]
|awards =
|influences =
|influenced =
|footnotes =
}}

'''Thomas Oldham''' (4 May 1816, [[Dublin]] – 17 July 1878, [[Rugby, Warwickshire|Rugby]]) was an Anglo-Irish [[geologist]].<ref name=OldhamDNB>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Oldham, Thomas|volume= 42|pages=111–112}}</ref><ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Oldham, Thomas}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Thomas was born at Dublin on 4 May 1816 as the eldest son of Thomas Oldham and his wife, Margaret Bagot. Educated at a private schools, he began residency at [[Trinity College, Dublin]] before the age of 16. By spring 1836, he started his B.A.<ref name="OldhamDNB" /> and later studied civil engineering at the [[University of Edinburgh]] as well as geology under [[Robert Jameson]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thomas Oldham | Pioneers of the British Geological Survey | British Geoscientists | Discovering geology | British Geological Survey (BGS) |url=http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/geologyOfBritain/archives/pioneers/pioneers.cfc?method=viewRecord&personId=177&currentTab=tab_O |accessdate=19 July 2019 |website=www.bgs.ac.uk}}</ref> They became intimate friends. After two years in Scotland, he returned to Dublin.<ref name="OldhamDNB" /> He married Louisa Matilda Dixon of Liverpool in 1850.

== Geology ==
In 1838 he joined the ordnance survey in Ireland as a chief assistant under [[Joseph Ellison Portlock]] who was studying the geology of Londonderry and [[neighbourhood]]. Portlock wrote of him
{{cquote|whenever I have required his aid … I have found him possessed of the highest intelligence and the most unbounded zeal}}

He discovered radiating fans shaped impressions in the town of [[Bray, County Wicklow|Bray]] in 1840. He showed this to the English palaeontologist [[Edward Forbes]], who named it ''[[Oldhamia]]'' after him. Forbes declared them to be [[bryozoa]]ns, however later workers ascribed it to other plants and animals. For a while these were considered the oldest fossils in the world.

He became Curator to the [[Geological Society of Dublin]], and in 1845 succeeded [[John Phillips (geologist)|John Phillips]], nephew of [[William Smith (geologist)|William Smith]], in the Chair of Geology at [[Trinity College, Dublin]]. He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in June 1848.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://royalsociety.org/Lists-of-Royal-Society-Fellows-1660-2007/ |title=Lists of Royal Society Fellows 1660-2007 |publisher=The Royal Society |accessdate=14 July 2010 |location=London |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100324095152/http://royalsociety.org/Lists-of-Royal-Society-Fellows-1660-2007/ |archivedate=24 March 2010 }}</ref>

== Career in India ==
He resigned as the Curator to the Geological Society of Dublin in November 1850 and took a position as the first Superintendent of the [[Geological Survey of India]].<ref name="OldhamDNB" /> He was the first Irish geologists to migrate to the subcontinent. He was followed by his brother [[Charles Aemilius Oldham|Charles]], [[William King (GSI)|William King Jr.]] (son of [[William King (geologist)|William King]], the Professor of Geology at [[National University of Ireland, Galway|Queen's College, Galway]]), [[Valentine Ball]], and more than 12 other Irish geologists.

In India he oversaw a mapping programme that focussed on coal bearing strata. The team of geologists made major discoveries. [[Henry Benedict Medlicott]] coined the term "Gondwana Series" in 1872. Oldham's elder son [[Richard Dixon Oldham]] distinguished three types of [[Seismic wave|pressure]] produced by earthquakes: now known as P (compressional), S (shear), and L (Love)-waves, based on his observations made after the [[1897 Assam earthquake|Great Assam Earthquake of 1897]]. Richard showed in 1906 the arrival patterns of waves and suggested that the core of the earth was liquid. His younger son [[Henry Yule Oldham|Henry]] became a [[Reader (academic rank)|reader]] in geography at [[King's College, Cambridge]].

He also started the ''Paleontologia Indica'', a series of memoirs on the [[fossils]] of India. For this work, he recruited [[Ferdinand Stoliczka]] from Europe.

== Later days ==
Oldham resigned from his position in India in 1876 on the grounds of poor health and retired to Rugby in England. In recognition of his lifetime's "long & important services in the science of geology", including ''Palaeontographica Indica'', he was awarded the Royal Society's [[Royal Medal]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://royalsociety.org/Content.aspx?id=3311|title=Royal archive winners Prior to 1900 - Royal Medals|publisher=The Royal Society|accessdate=14 July 2010|location=London}}</ref> He died in Rugby on 17 July 1878.<ref>Patrick N. Wyse Jackson, 2005 Thomas Oldham. Earth Sciences 2000 Issue 12 {{cite web |url=http://www.habitas.org.uk/es2k/newsletter/Earth%20Science%202000%20Issue%2012.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2012-10-19 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315145541/http://www.habitas.org.uk/es2k/newsletter/Earth%20Science%202000%20Issue%2012.pdf |archivedate=15 March 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>[http://darwin.lib.cam.ac.uk/perl/nav?pclass=name;pkey=Oldham%2C%20Thomas Darwin correspondence database]</ref>
{{botanist|Oldham|Oldham, Thomas}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oldham, Thomas}}
[[Category:1816 births]]
[[Category:1878 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British geologists]]
[[Category:Royal Medal winners]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Presidents of The Asiatic Society]]

Thomas Oldham - Revision history

Mdfaisalahmed121: put up initial stub with sources...