William Powell Sollis, 1893 - 1960

by Brian Stevenson
last updated April, 2025

William P. Sollis was a clerk for the London City Council, and an expert amateur microscopist. He specialized in “rock sections, mosses, foraminifera, and wood sections”. He was a long-standing member of the Quekett Microscopical Club, and served as Editor of the Club’s Journal from 1934 to 1939.

Figure 1 Thin section slide of leucite syenite from Magnet Cove, Arkansas, USA, prepared by William P. Sollis.

Figure 2. Syenite Leucite thin section, prepared by W.P. Sollis (see Figure 1). Imaged with a 10x objective lens and C-mounted digital camera on a Leitz Ortholux II microscope, using standard transmitted light (left) and between crossed polarizing filters (right).

William Powell Sollis was born on March 17, 1893, in Bristol, Gloucestershire. He was the youngest of four children of William H. and Marion Sollis. The father was a “cabinet maker”, who died while our microscopist was very young, in 1899.

As a teenager, William was apprenticed to a grocer in Bristol. He abandoned that goal in 1912, moving to London and taking work as a clerk for the City Council. He was the Council’s Principal Assistant when he retired in 1960.

He joined the Quekett Microscopical Club for the first time on February 23, 1915, but let his membership lapse around 1920. He re-joined on June 8, 1926, and remined a member throughout the rest of his life. As noted above, he served as Editor for the Journal of the Quektt Microscopical Club from 1934 to 1939.

Sollis joined the Army in 1915, as a Private in the 2/3rd South Midland Field Ambulance. He served in France for three years and eight months, being discahrged in 1919.

William married Minnie Margaret Hobbs on April 19, 1919, in Bristol. They had one son, James William Sollis.

He published a single article on microscopy, a 1935 article in the Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club on “Interference figures”. He began, “Some time ago the Club received a donation of a very fine set of slides of crystal and mineral sections, cut in suitable directions and of the correct thickness to show interference figures in convergent polarized light. A number of members, anxious to make use of these slides, have expressed doubts as to whether their microscopes are capable of showing the figures.” Sollis then described how one can easily accessorize nearly any microscope to achieve the desired goals.

William died on December 29, 1960. His obituary in the Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club stated, “His quiet, tolerant manner concealed a man of many interests and great abilities to such an extent that often only his closest friends knew and appreciated his work. He was an able mounter, specialising in rock sections, mosses, foraminifera, and wood sections. His valuable collection of wood sections was lost by enemay action in World War II, but happily much of his other work survives in the cabinets of his friends. Hearing of his passing, two old friends paid a fitting tribute to his life and manner, talking independently to the writer: ‘He was a perfect gentleman’.”

Resources

England census and other records, accessed through ancestry.com

England Absentee Voters, Wandsworth, London (1918) “Rosehill Road, S.W. 18, Sollis, William Powell, 439555 Pte, 2/3rd C.M., Fld. Amb., R.A.M.C.” , accessed through ancestry.com

Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club (1916) Members

Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club (1918) Members

Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club (1922) Members (W.P. Sollis not listed)

Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club (1927) Members

Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club (1928-1933) Masthead, Second Series, Vol. 16

Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club (1934-1937) Masthead, Third Series, Vol. 1

Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club (1938-1943) Masthead, Fourth Series, Vol. 1

Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club (1948) Members

Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club (1961) William Powell Sollis (1893-1960), page 401

Marriage record of William Powell Sollis and Minnie Margaret Hobbs (1919) Parish records of St. Raphael the Archangel, Bristol, accessed through ancestry.com

Probate of the will of W.P. Sollis (1961) “Sollis William Powell of 11 Harlington Road East Feltham Middlesex died 29 December 1960 at West Middlesex Hospital Isleworth Middlesex Probate London 31 January to Minnie Margaret Sollis widow. Effects £845 6s 1d”, accessed through ancestry.com

Sollis, W.P. (1935) Interference figures, Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club, pages 176-178