This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Fionnuala Carson Williams. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 1 July 1899, United Kingdom
Died: 10 November 1985
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: Mrs Arthur Holmes
Reynolds, Doris Livesey (Mrs Arthur Holmes ) (1899–1985), geologist, was born 1 July 1899 in England, daughter of Alfred Reynolds and Louisa Margaret Reynolds (née Livesey). Educated at Palmer’s school, Grays, Essex, and at Bedford College, University of London, she was appointed assistant in QUB (1921–6) on the establishment of the first chair of geology (in its own right). Demonstrator in geology in Bedford College (1927–31), she was lecturer in petrology first in University College London (1931–3), and secondly in Durham University (1933–43). She was an honorary research fellow of the University of Edinburgh (1943–62) and of Bedford College (1962–85).
Although all her appointments but her first were outside Ireland, she continued to study Ireland’s geology, particularly the igneous rocks of counties Armagh and Down, on which she published articles in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (xc (1934) & xcvii (1941)) and in RIA Proc. (xlviii B (1943)). While honorary fellow in Edinburgh, she received a Leverhulme fellowship to study the geology of Slieve Gullion, Co. Armagh (1946–8) (see International Geological Congress 18th Session, Gt. Britain (1948), Pt. 3 (1950) and Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, lxii (1951)). She continued to contribute to the aforementioned journals and to the Geological Magazine on the origin of granite and allied subjects, and published Elements of physical geology (1969).
Elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1949) and of the Geological Society, London, she was a Lyell medallist of the latter society in 1960. She married (1939) Arthur Holmes (1890–1965) of Northumberland, England, professor of geology in Durham (1925–43) and subsequently regius professor of geology in Edinburgh (1943–56). After her husband’s death in the same year as publication of the second edition of his classic work Principles of physical geology (first published in 1944), Reynolds set about preparing a third edition. Even before its publication in 1978, she was arranging for an even more up-to-date revision; consequently, Holmes principles of physical geology (4th ed., 1993) remains a basic text.
Reynolds had a stepson from her husband’s first marriage but no other children. Her address for the last few years of her life was 7 Tandridge Road, Hove, East Sussex, England. She died 10 November 1985.