Herbert Harold Read

Herbert Harold Read
FRS
Herbert Harold Read FRS
Born	17 December 1889
Died	29 March 1970 (aged 80)
Alma mater	University of London
Spouse	Edith Browning
Awards	Fellow of the Royal Society (1939); Wollaston Medal (1952); Royal Medal (1963); Penrose Medal (1967)
	Scientific career
Fields	Geology
Institutions	British Geological Survey; University of Liverpool; Imperial College, London
Doctoral students	Janet Vida Watson; John Sutton; Derek Flinn

Herbert Harold Read FRS,^[1] FRSE, FGS, (17 December 1889, in Whitstable – 29 March 1970)^[2]^[3] was a British geologist and Professor of Geology at Imperial College.^[2] From 1947-1948 he was president of the Geological Society.^[2]

Life

He was born at Whitstable in Kent on 17 December 1889 the son of Herbert Read, a dairy farmer, and his wife, Caroline Mary Kearn. He attended St Alphege Church School in Whitstable then Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury. He then studied Sciences at the University of London, graduating BSc in 1911.

In the First World War he served in the Royal Fusiliers seeing active service on the Somme and at Gallipoli. He was invalided out of service in 1917 and returned to HM Geological Survey (Scottish section), where he had begun briefly in 1914. He stayed with the survey until 1931.^[4]

In 1927 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John Horne, Sir John Smith Flett, Murray Macgregor and Sir Edward Battersby Bailey. From 1931 to 1939 he was Professor of Geology at Liverpool University.^[5]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1939^[2] and won its Royal Medal in 1963 for "outstanding contributions to the understanding of the processes of rock metamorphism and the origins of granite".^[2]^[6] He also was awarded the Bigsby Medal in 1935, the Wollaston Medal in 1952 and the Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America in 1967.^[2] He served as Dean of the Royal School of Mines from 1943-45.^[7]

He was Chairman of the Scientific Committee and member of the Committee of Management of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955–58. The Read Mountains in the Shackleton Range of Antarctica are named after him.^[8]

He died on 29 March 1970. In 1917 he had married Edith Browning.

Publications

British Regional Geology: The Grampian Highlands. Second edition (1948) revised by A.G. MacGregor
Geology: An Introduction to Earth History (1949)
The Granite Controversy (1957)
Beginning Geology (1966)
Later Stages of Earth History (1975)

Quotes

"The best geologist is he who has seen the most rocks." (H. H. Read, 1940)^[9]

References

^ Sutton, J. (1970). "Herbert Harold Read. 1889-1970". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 16: 479–497. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1970.0020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35696. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ ‘READ, Herbert Harold’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 1 March 2009
^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
^ "Royal archive winners 1989 - 1950". Awards, medals and prize lectures. Royal Society. Retrieved 28 February 2009.
^ Hannah, Gay. History Of Imperial College London, 1907-2007. p. 752.
^ Alberts, Fred G., ed. (1995), Geographic Names of the Antarctic (PDF) (2 ed.), United States Board on Geographic Names, p. 607, retrieved 3 December 2023 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Board on Geographic Names.
^ Young, Davis A. (2003). Mind over magma: the story of igneous petrology. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. p. 50. ISBN 0-691-10279-1.

External links

Works by or about Herbert Harold Read at the Internet Archive

This article relating to Imperial College London is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[frs-1] Sutton, J. (1970). "Herbert Harold Read. 1889-1970". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 16: 479–497. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1970.0020.

[ODNB-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35696. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[3] ‘READ, Herbert Harold’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 1 March 2009

[4] Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2018.

[5] Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2018.

[6] "Royal archive winners 1989 - 1950". Awards, medals and prize lectures. Royal Society. Retrieved 28 February 2009.

[7] Hannah, Gay. History Of Imperial College London, 1907-2007. p. 752.

[8] Alberts, Fred G., ed. (1995), Geographic Names of the Antarctic (PDF) (2 ed.), United States Board on Geographic Names, p. 607, retrieved 3 December 2023 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Board on Geographic Names.

[9] Young, Davis A. (2003). Mind over magma: the story of igneous petrology. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. p. 50. ISBN 0-691-10279-1.

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v t e Presidents of the Geological Society of London
19th century	George Bellas Greenough Henry Grey Bennet William Blake John MacCulloch George Bellas Greenough Earl Compton William Babington William Buckland John Bostock William Fitton Adam Sedgwick Roderick Murchison George Bellas Greenough Charles Lyell William Whewell William Buckland Roderick Murchison Henry Warburton Leonard Horner Henry De la Beche William Hopkins Edward Forbes William Hamilton Daniel Sharpe Joseph Ellison Portlock John Phillips Leonard Horner Andrew Crombie Ramsay William Hamilton Warington Wilkinson Smyth Thomas Henry Huxley Joseph Prestwich George Douglas Campbell John Evans Peter Martin Duncan Henry Clifton Sorby Robert Etheridge John Whitaker Hulke Thomas Bonney John Wesley Judd William Blanford Archibald Geikie Wilfred Hudleston Henry Woodward Henry Hicks William Whitaker
20th century	Jethro Teall Charles Lapworth John Marr Archibald Geikie William Sollas William Watts Aubrey Strahan Arthur Smith Woodward Alfred Harker George Lamplugh Richard Oldham Albert Seward John Evans Francis Bather John Gregory Edmund Garwood Thomas Holland John Green Owen Thomas Jones Henry Hurd Swinnerton Percy Boswell Herbert Leader Hawkins William Fearnsides Arthur Trueman Herbert Harold Read Cecil Tilley Owen Thomas Jones George Lees William King Walter Campbell Smith Leonard Hawkes James Stubblefield Sydney Hollingworth Oliver Bulman Frederick Shotton Kingsley Dunham Neville George William Alexander Deer Thomas Westoll Percy Kent Wallace Pitcher Percival Allen Howel Francis Janet Watson Charles Holland Bernard Leake Derek Blundell Anthony Harris Charles Curtis R. S. J. Sparks Richard Hardman Robin Cocks
21st century	Ronald Oxburgh Mark Moody-Stuart Peter Styles Richard Fortey Lynne Frostick

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