Holloway Bursaries & Awards

Rob Holloway was a long standing member of the Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group. He was a man of wide interests – photography, football coaching and touring with his camper van – but above all pursuing with great enthusiasm geological field work and expanding his specimen collection. He spent most of his career as a teacher in Primary Schools. He died in 2010 and left a generous bequest to the Group. Amongst his wishes was that some of it should be used to encourage young people to develop an interest in geology and to support geology students early in their career. Please scroll down to see full write up.

Tom Barrett, 2012 recipient. Tom went on to do a PhD
and is now following an academic career in geology.

Warwickshire Geology Conservation Group (WGCG) is pleased to offer a number of bursaries in memory of Rob Holloway.  To meet Rob’s wishes beneficiaries may include, amongst others, schools and their pupils, university Geology and Earth Science undergraduate and post-graduate students and young professionals in the ‘extractive and mineral processing industries. To date WGCG has regarded the following as appropriate recipients of awards – individual Primary Schools, Summer School Training of Secondary geology teachers, degree students undertaking geology projects, geology students undertaking relevant work experience placements and graduate students undertaking research projects with a geological application early in their careers. In addition, WGCG has been supporting outreach and educational activities as well as individual institutions where geology is used to contribute to the developing the ‘public understanding of science’.

See details of Tom Barratt’s January 2020 talk on Meteorites

How to get in touch:
We ask interested individuals or organisations to e-mail us on [email protected] outlining their area of interest. We will reply.

Current Activity
To go towards meeting Rob Holloway’s wishes, WGCG planned the following Awards in 2020-21:

  • To Primary Schools to support either fieldwork at Burton Dassett Hills or a visit to Lapworth Museum;
  • Bursaries to geology students at three universities (Birmingham, Derby and Exeter [at Cambourne School of Mines]) to help fund expenses for field mapping projects in the summer vacation. Students are selected on a competitive basis, by their university;
  • Geology is rarely taught in secondary schools now. What geology content there is in the National Curriculum is within science or geography. WGCG is providing bursaries for two teachers to take part in a three day Summer School on approaches to teaching the geological content in those subjects;
  • The Geology Society of London (GeoSoc) is piloting a one day in-service course for secondary teachers on teaching the geological content in science and geography. This is to be held in Birmingham.
  • WGCG is also providing support to the Earth Science Teachers Association (ESTA) to run one-day courses on geology for teachers in training for both primary and secondary schools;
  • Leicester University has a programme for its geology students of ‘Outreach Activities’, including for example working in schools, putting on exhibitions and writing trail guides. WGCG has made an award to help cover the costs of this programme.

Covid 19 has disrupted this programme and discussions are taking place with our partners as they work out what they will be able to do.

Primary Schools

We’ve teamed up with The Lapworth Museum, Birmingham University to offer a grant, available to primary schools to be used to cover the cost of transporting 1 class group for a taught and pre-booked visit to The Lapworth Museum, Birmingham University. The number of pupils to be agreed with The Lapworth Museum when you book. See more details and how to apply here

Rob K. Holloway (1942-2010)

By Ian Fenwick. Published in the WGCG Newsletter, Spring 2012

Over the past months, [of Spring 2012] many of you will have seen and heard many references to Rob Holloway, one of our members who sadly died in May 2010. Born in Mombasa, where his father worked for the East African Railways, Rob’s family soon moved back to England and settled in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. In the ‘60s Rob trained as a teacher and came to the Midlands to teach in Birmingham, firstly in Kitts Green and then in Erdington. He was one of those rare characters – a man who taught in a primary school. However, that provided him with an opportunity to provide a role model for many of his youngsters by conveying to them his enthusiasm for football. For many years he coached school teams and youth teams and ultimately became an FA qualified referee.

In parallel with his interest in football, he also developed a passion for photography, as witnessed by the vast number of photographs and astonishing range of dark-room equipment which survived him. This extended to stereoscopic photography which led him to become a member of the Stereoscopic Society. From photography developed a desire to produce electronic gadgetry to enhance the performance of his equipment.

Although he had shown interest in landforms and geomorphology while at college, it was really in his latter years that he developed a passion for geology. He soon joined field-based classes in Staffordshire but joined WGCG, despite the fact that he lived in Tamworth! Rob became a regular attender at our meetings and particularly relished the Group’s field trips. By the time of his last trip – to Watchet in September 2009 – he was already a sick man, but still raised the energy and enthusiasm to wax enthusiastically to me about the gypsum mineralisation in the cliffs to the west of the town.

Knowing little of Rob’s personal circumstances, for he was a very private person, it came as a huge shock to all concerned when he asked to meet up with a trio from the Group to discuss his will. He had, it transpired, been told that he might expect to live for up to a further 5 years. At this meeting, he insisted that he wished to leave the great bulk of his estate to the Group, especially to be used to encourage young geologists, to record our field excursions and to enable the Group to produce high quality interpretation panel materials.

In short, he sadly only lived for a further couple of months at which stage we discovered the extent of his magnanimity. Both his houses had to be sold and efforts made to ensure that his effects found their way to appreciative homes. When the estate was finally settled in January, it became clear that Rob had not only transformed the financial fortunes of the Group, but in the present economic climate, it has been truly providential.

None of us would, I think, have contemplated that a member would value the Group and its activities so much as to repay it with such generosity.

Source: https://www.wgcg.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/newsletter-2012S.pdf#page=4

Last Updated on 15 Apr 2021