W. B. R. King
William Bernard Robinson King OBE MC FRS[2] (12 November 1889 – 23 January 1963) was a British geologist.
Professor W.B.R. King | |
|---|---|
| Born | William Bernard Robinson King 12 November 1889 |
| Died | 23 January 1963 (aged 73) |
| Alma mater | Jesus College, Cambridge[2] |
| Awards | Murchison Medal (1951) Fellow of the Royal Society[2] |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Cambridge British Geological Survey |
Education
King was educated at the University of Cambridge graduating a first-class Honours degree in geology in 1912
Career
He joined the British Geological Survey (then called the Geological Survey of Great Britain) and distinguished himself on field studies in Wales. In 1914 he was commissioned as a second-lieutenant in the Territorial Army and in 1915 was rapidly trained as a hydrologist and sent to France to assist the Chief Engineer of the British Expeditionary Force establish potable water supplies from boreholes. He has been called "the first British military hydrogeologist"[3]
The most senior of the three military geologists at the start of World War II, Major King was sent to France in 1939.[4] where he later advised on suitable sites for airfields and the D-Day landings. He was awarded a Military Cross in 1940.
In 1943 he became Woodwardian Professor of Geology at the University of Cambridge.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society[2] in 1949. His candidacy document read
Woodwardian Professor of Geology; during two wars field-geologist R. E. serving with the British Army. As stratigrapher has mapped and worked out the Upper Ordovician Shelly succession through Sedgwicks classic ground along the Welsh Borderland and in Ribblesdale. As Palaeontologist has described new trilobites and correlated Cambrian faunas from Iran and The Salt Range. A co-worker with Marr on Cambridgeshire gravels has successfully applied the Abbe Breuil's Somme Valley flint-implement typology in England. And presented an acceptable synthesis of the Pleistocene succession in the valley of the Lower Thames. His war-time responsibilities included (1) underground hydrography for emergency water-supplies in France, (2) surface and sub-soil hydrology for selection of airfield sites in France and Belgium, and (3) "D Day" beach intelligence.[5]
Personal life
He was the father of Cuchlaine King
References
- "The Papers of William Bernard Robinson King - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk.
- Shotton, F. W. (1963). "William Bernard Robinson King. 1889-1963". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 9: 171–182. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1963.0009.
- Rose, E.P.F. 'Groundwater as a military resource: pioneering British military well boring and hydrogeology in World War I' in Rose, E.P.F.; Mather, J.D. (eds) Military Aspects of Hydrogeology (Geological Society Special Publication Number 362, 2012)
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2009. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=RefNo==%27EC%2F1949%2F10%27&dsqCmd=Show.tcl
Further reading
- Bate, David G.; Morrison, Andrew L. 'Some aspects of the British Geological Survey’s contribution to the war effort at the Western Front, 1914–1918' (Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, Volume 129, Issue 1, 2018, Pages 3–11)
- Rose, E.P.F.; Rosenbaum, M.S. 'British military geologists: the formative years to the end of the First World War' (Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, Volume 104, Issue 1, 1993, Pages 41–49)
- Rose, E.P.F.; Rosenbaum, M.S. 'British military geologists: through the Second World War to the end of the Cold War' (Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, Volume 104, Issue 2, 1993, Pages 95–108)
- Underwood, James R.; Guth, Peter L. (eds) Military Geology in War and Peace (Reviews in Engineering Geology Volume XIII, 1998)