Individual Details
Wiliam Dickson Lang FRS
(29 Dec 1878 - 3 Mar 1966)
WILLIAM DICKSON LANG
1878-1966
Elected F.R-S- 1929
WILLIAM DICKSON LANG, Keeper of the Department of Geology in the
British Museum (Natural History) from 1928-1938, died at Charmouth,
Dorset;, on 3 March 1966 in his 89th year. He was the second son of Edward
Tickell Lang and Hebe, daughter of John Venn Prior, His father was a civil
engineer, engaged at the time of the boy’s birth, at Kumal in the Punjab on
29 December 1878, in the construction of the Jumna Canal. William was
very much a product of the professional classes, all four of his grandparental
branches, the Langs, Tickells, Priors and the Tempiers, being plentifully
adorned with members of the fighting services, mostly the army— including
at least two generals, and a collateral Field Marshal— the Indian Civil
Service, the Church, the law and medicine, with a wealthy land-owning
ancestor in the near distance, whose property had either passed to another
branch or been largely dissolved by the multiplicity of descendants. His
immediate relatives formed a well-knit, cultured clan whose nineteenthcentury standards and self-sufficiency were perhaps not always an advantage
in dealing with a brash twentieth-century society.
Lang himself summed up his ancestry thus:
"The Langs and Tickells were very similar and homogeneous in their
status, occupation and outlook, most of them entering one of the
services (generally the army) and a few, the Church. It is recorded that
one or two Langs showed (dilettante) artistic leanings, and one Tickell
was a minor poet. None is mentioned as exhibiting a mathematical or
scientific faculty; but a collateral Tickell branch threw up a naturalist.
Most led straightforward and competent, if somewhat conventional,
lives without exhibiting very outstanding abilities.
‘On the other hand the Prior and Templer lineages were more
heterogeneous, except that most of the Templers took the law for their
profession. One Prior had literary and classical tastes, two were doctors
of medicine and one a barrister. The grand-daughter of the tin-man
(Gideon Dare, tin-man to George III) seems to have brought
originality into the Templer lineage with a taste for poetry and writing.
Yet there was an earlier eccentric streak, culminating in madness in
William Force Templer, who also was devoted to natural history/
1878-1966
Elected F.R-S- 1929
WILLIAM DICKSON LANG, Keeper of the Department of Geology in the
British Museum (Natural History) from 1928-1938, died at Charmouth,
Dorset;, on 3 March 1966 in his 89th year. He was the second son of Edward
Tickell Lang and Hebe, daughter of John Venn Prior, His father was a civil
engineer, engaged at the time of the boy’s birth, at Kumal in the Punjab on
29 December 1878, in the construction of the Jumna Canal. William was
very much a product of the professional classes, all four of his grandparental
branches, the Langs, Tickells, Priors and the Tempiers, being plentifully
adorned with members of the fighting services, mostly the army— including
at least two generals, and a collateral Field Marshal— the Indian Civil
Service, the Church, the law and medicine, with a wealthy land-owning
ancestor in the near distance, whose property had either passed to another
branch or been largely dissolved by the multiplicity of descendants. His
immediate relatives formed a well-knit, cultured clan whose nineteenthcentury standards and self-sufficiency were perhaps not always an advantage
in dealing with a brash twentieth-century society.
Lang himself summed up his ancestry thus:
"The Langs and Tickells were very similar and homogeneous in their
status, occupation and outlook, most of them entering one of the
services (generally the army) and a few, the Church. It is recorded that
one or two Langs showed (dilettante) artistic leanings, and one Tickell
was a minor poet. None is mentioned as exhibiting a mathematical or
scientific faculty; but a collateral Tickell branch threw up a naturalist.
Most led straightforward and competent, if somewhat conventional,
lives without exhibiting very outstanding abilities.
‘On the other hand the Prior and Templer lineages were more
heterogeneous, except that most of the Templers took the law for their
profession. One Prior had literary and classical tastes, two were doctors
of medicine and one a barrister. The grand-daughter of the tin-man
(Gideon Dare, tin-man to George III) seems to have brought
originality into the Templer lineage with a taste for poetry and writing.
Yet there was an earlier eccentric streak, culminating in madness in
William Force Templer, who also was devoted to natural history/
Events
| Birth | 29 Dec 1878 | Kurnali, Punjab, Pakistan | |||
| Christen | 13 Apr 1879 | Kurnal, Bengal, India | |||
| Death | 3 Mar 1966 | Charmouth, Dorset, England, United Kingdom |
Families
| Father | Edward Tickell Lang (1849 - 1880) |
| Mother | Hebe Prior (1844 - 1900) |
| Sibling | Hebe Maria Lang (1873 - 1958) |
| Sibling | Edward Prior Lang (1874 - 1949) |
| Sibling | Annie Louise Lang (1876 - 1966) |
| Sibling | James Tickell Lang (1880 - 1883) |