Francis Toolis

Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society celebrated its 150th year in 2012. To mark the anniversary the Society held a one-day conference on Saturday, 8 September 2012. The President of the Society, Dr Francis Toolis, opened the event with a history of the early days of the Society. He recounted something of the lives of founders such as Dr Gilchrist, the second Physician Superintendent at the Crichton Royal Institution and Dr Grierson of Thornhill, whose remarkable private museum was the inspiration for the African explorer, Joseph Thomson, also a member of the Society, the man after whom the Thomson gazelle is named and the inspiration himself for Sir H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines. Sir William Jardine of Applegarth, a true polymath and the author of many books, was the Society’s first President. Among the later members was Samuel Arnott, one-time Provost of Maxwelltown, who wrote extensively for the Society’s Transactions and was recognised in his time as a world authority on snowdrops. This is the text of the President’s opening address.