Joseph Ellison Portlock
British geologist
Major-General Joseph Ellison Portlock (30 September 1794 – 14 February 1864) was born at Gosport and was a British geologist and British Army officer, the only son of Nathaniel Portlock, a captain in the Royal Navy.
Educated at Blundell's School and the Royal Military Academy, Portlock entered the Royal Engineers in 1813. In 1814, he took part in frontier operations in Canada. In 1824, he was selected by Lieut-colonel (afterwards Major-General) T.F. Colby (1784–1852) to take part in Ordnance Survey of Ireland. He was engaged for several years in the trigonometrical branch and subsequently compiled information on the physical aspects, geology, and economic products of Ireland, including the Memoir for which he wrote substantial sections on productive economy.
In 1837, he formed at Belfast a geological and statistical office, a museum for geological and zoological specimens, and a laboratory for the examination of soils. The work was then carried on by Portlock as the geological branch of the Ordnance Survey, and the chief results were embodied in his Report on the Geology of the County of Londonderry and of parts of Tyrone and Fermanagh (1843), an elaborate and well-illustrated volume in which he was assisted by Thomas Oldham.
After serving in Corfu and at Portsmouth, he was, in 1849, appointed Commanding Royal Engineer at Cork, and from 1851 to 1856, he was Inspector of Studies at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. For a short time, commanding officer at Dover, when the Council of Military Education was formed in 1857, he was selected as a member.
During these years of active service, he contributed numerous geological papers to the scientific societies of Dublin and to the British Association.
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