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Wilhelm Schlich

Wilhelm Schlich is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wilhelm Schlich rather than just read about it. In short: Sir Wilhelm Philipp Daniel Schlich (28 February 1840 in Flonheim – 28 September 1925 in Oxford), also known as William Schlich, was a German-born forester who worked extensively in India for the British administration. As a professor at Cooper's Hill, he influenced colonial forestry across the British colonies.

Wilhelm Schlich — main illustration
Wilhelm Schlich — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Wilhelm Schlich belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Wilhelm Schlich to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Wilhelm Schlich from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sir Wilhelm Philipp Daniel Schlich (28 February 1840 in Flonheim – 28 September 1925 in Oxford), also known as William Schlich, was a German-born forester who worked extensively in India for the British administration. As a professor at Cooper's Hill, he influenced colonial forestry across the British colonies. His major work was a five volume Manual of Forestry (1889–96).

Biography

William was born to Daniel Schlich and Charlotte Frank. Both parents came from Hessian families and Daniel was a Lutheran pastor or Kirchenrat. His early education was at Flonheim and then at Langgöns and other schools in Hesse where the family moved. Schlich attended the Gymnasium in Darmstadt (1851). In 1855, he entered the University of Giessen, where he studied under Gustav Heyer (1826-1883). Graduating in 1862, he joined the Hesse forestry service and was appointed Oberförster in Homberg in 1865. He received a doctoral degree in 1867 from Giessen. The Austro-Prussian War of 1866 forced him to move, and, on Heyer's recommendation, he entered the British Imperial Indian Forest Service. Arriving in India in February 1867, his first posting was in Burma. He was promoted and worked in Sindh and later Bengal, becoming Conservator of Forests in 1871, and Inspector-General of Forests in 1883, succeeding his mentor Dietrich Brandis. He developed forest management and education programmes and spent 19 years in India, helping to establish the journal Indian Forester in 1874 (becoming its first honorary editor) and the school at Dehradun in 1877. In 1885 Schlich moved to England to take up the pioneering post of Professor of Forestry at the Royal Indian Engineering College at Cooper's Hill, near Egham, Surrey, the first formal forestry course in England. He became a British citizen in 1886. In 1905, upon the closure of the college at Cooper's Hill, he moved to Oxford, to found Oxford's forestry programme. He retired on 1 January 1920 and lived on at Oxford where he died on 28 September 1925 from a bronchial infection. He is buried at Wolvercote. Schlich was a colleague and mentor of Gifford Pinchot. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1901, awarded the Knight Commander of the Indian Empire in 1909 and was an Honorary Fellow of St John's College. Following Schlich’s death in 1925, a fund was raised by Oxford to establish an award in his name. After awards were given in several countries, the Society of American Foresters (SAF) permanently adopted the award to recognize outstanding contributions to the field of forestry. SAF presented the first Sir William Schlich Memorial Award to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 and the second Schlich Memorial Award to Gifford Pinchot in 1940.

Works Schlich was the author of the five-volume Manual of Forestry (1889–96) published serially in three editions. The first two volumes were on silviculture, the others dealing with forest management, forest protection, and forest utilisation. His Manual became the standard and enduring textbook for forestry students. In 1904 he published Forestry in the United Kingdom. Other publications were The Outlook of the World's Timber Supply and Afforestation in Great Britain and Ireland.

Personal life Schlich married Mary Margaret Smith in 1874. She was English, the daughter of the lexicographer Sir William Smith. In 1874 he changed the spelling of his name from Wilhelm to William. The marriage produced one son who died early and one daughter, Gertrude. Following the death of his first wife in 1878, he married Adèle Emilie Mathilde Marsily, member of an Antwerp family originally from Italy. They had a son and three daughters. He is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. The composer Humphrey Searle was his grandson.

See also List of members of German student corps

References

External links

The First American Forestry Award - Harold K. Steen Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine Memoirs by Humphrey Searle, Schlich's grandson Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism - Greg Barton, Gregory Allen

Illustrations

Wilhelm Schlich: Sir William Schlich in ca 1910
Sir William Schlich in ca 1910
Wilhelm Schlich: Schlich, in the middle of the seated row, with students from the forestry school at Oxford, on a visit to the forests of Saxony in 1892
Schlich, in the middle of the seated row, with students from the forestry school at Oxford, on a visit to the forests of Saxony in 1892

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wilhelm Schlich

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wilhelm Schlich claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wilhelm Schlich before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wilhelm Schlich ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wilhelm Schlich

In research
Wilhelm Schlich appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Wilhelm Schlich in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Wilhelm Schlich is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1840 births, 1925 deaths, British Lutherans, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Wilhelm Schlich outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Wilhelm Schlich in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Wilhelm Schlich means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Wilhelm Schlich out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wilhelm Schlich in simple terms?

Sir Wilhelm Philipp Daniel Schlich (28 February 1840 in Flonheim – 28 September 1925 in Oxford), also known as William Schlich, was a German-born forester who worked extensively in India for the British administration. As a professor at Cooper's Hill, he influenced colonial forestry across the Brit…

Why does Wilhelm Schlich matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wilhelm Schlich?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wilhelm Schlich.

Tags

  • 1840 births
  • 1925 deaths
  • British Lutherans
  • British foresters
  • Burials at Wolvercote Cemetery
  • Fellows of St John's College, Oxford
  • Fellows of the Linnean Society of London
  • Forestry academics
  • German Lutherans
  • German emigrants to the United Kingdom
  • German fellows of the Royal Society
  • German foresters

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