Edward Battersby Bailey (1881-1965)

E B Bailey doing fieldwork (P225785)

E B Bailey was born on 1 July 1881 at Marden, Kent. In 1902 he graduated with first-class honours in geology and physics from Clare College, Cambridge. In the same year he joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain and worked in Scotland.

In 1915 Bailey joined the Royal Garrison Artillery as a subaltern. He was wounded on the Somme in September 1916 and near Ypres in 1918. These wounds resulted in the loss of an eye and a permanently damaged left arm. Bailey was awarded the Military Cross, the Croix de Guerre and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. In spite of his injuries he later wrote in Geological Survey of Great Britain (1952) "The 1914 War was a comparatively happy one for juniors on the staff..."

In 1919 Bailey became District Geologist for the West Highlands and Islands. He resigned from the Geological Survey in 1929 and took up the post of Professor of Geology at the University of Glasgow. In 1937 Bailey was appointed Director of the Geological Survey after the premature death of Bernard Smith.

Bailey in Russia, 1937 (P008691)



Bailey in the Home Guard, 1944

 (GSM/DR/Sb/7/5)

During the Second World War Bailey joined the Home Guard along with several other Survey staff. He recorded in Geological Survey of Great Britain that on one occasion "...I had been temporarily buried by a V1 or Doodlebug".

Bailey was Knighted in 1945 and in April of that year retired as Director of the Survey. He continued to be active in the field of geology until shortly before his death on 19 March 1965.
 
A G MacGregor in an obituary in the Geological Society of America Bulletin described Bailey as "a very great geological leader and investigator". Rather more irreverently he was described in Down to Earth: One Hundred and Fifty Years of the British Geological Survey (1985) as "perhaps the most eccentric Director of them all".

You can find out more about the Geological Survey and the First World War in the paper "Some aspects of the British Geological Survey’s contribution to the war effort at the Western Front, 1914–1918" by D G Bate and A L Morrison. This can be downloaded here

Andrew L Morrison

Frederick Murray Trotter (1897-1968)

F M Trotter in 1927

Artist's impression of Trotter as a dispatch rider

F M Trotter was born at Gateshead on 19 April 1897. In 1916 he was studying geology and chemistry at Armstrong College, Newcastle when, at the age of 18, he joined the Royal Engineers. Trotter was sent to the Western Front as a dispatch Rider. In 1918 while near Vimy he was badly wounded by shrapnel and lost one of his eyes and part of his skull.

Sketch of Trotter c1937 (P832327)

After he recovered Trotter was able to resume his studies at Armstrong College and was awarded his BSc in 1920. In 1921 he joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain and was first stationed at their office at Whitehaven, Cumbria. A study of the glacial history of the Vale of Eden and surrounding areas gained him a DSc.

In 1933 Trotter moved to the Forest of Dean and at the outbreak of the Second World War he was sent to South Wales to work on the coalfield. At the end of 1941 he was promoted to District Geologist for the North-West of England and in 1955 he became Assistant Director (Deputy Chief Scientific Officer). He retired in 1963 and died on 24 July 1968.

In an obituary in the Proceedings of the Geologist's Association his former colleague William Colin Campbell Rose wrote: It was a constant source of wonder and admiration to his colleagues that despite this tremendous handicap  (of which he never complained) he enjoyed his life and work to the full and seemed not to suffer any disadvantage.

 You can find out more about the Geological Survey and the First World War in the paper "Some aspects of the British Geological Survey’s contribution to the war effort at the Western Front, 1914–1918" by D G Bate and A L Morrison. This can be downloaded here

Andrew L Morrison

Cecil Henry Cunnington (1889-1918)

Detail from one of Cunnington's field slips (Haunton, Staffordshire)

C H Cunnington (of whom we do not have a photograph) was born on 7 June 1889. In 1909 he obtained a first class honours degree in Geology from University College, London. Cunnington joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain in 1910 and spent much of the next four years surveying an area bordering the Warwickshire Coalfields. An obituary in the Proceedings of the Geological Society later referred to this as "excellent work".

He had joined the Officer's Training Corps before the outbreak of the First World War so entered the army soon after it began. In 1915 he was sent to Gallipoli on special military duty along with two other former staff from the Geological Survey, R W Pocock and T H Whitehead.


R W Pocock (P810105)

The work they did was related to trying to find an adequate water supply for the troops there. An unpublished report on the geology of the Gallipoli peninsula was produced for the War Office. Sadly, it is now untraceable. 



After returning from Gallipoli, Cunnington joined the Machine Gun Corps and served in France. He was invalided out of the army in 1917 and later underwent a major operation. He suffered a relapse and died on 26 April 1918. 

During the war 29 staff from the Geological Survey and Museum joined the armed forces. They consisted of 14 geologists, 3 fossil collectors, 2 general assistants, 3 attendants, 4 draughtsmen, 2 labourers and 1 assistant clerk. Cecil Cunnington holds the unfortunate distinction of being the only one of those who did not survive the war.

For a detailed study of the terrain at Gallipoli see Doyle, P & Bennett, M R 1999. "Military Geography: the influence of terrain in the outcome of the Gallipoli Campaign, 1915". Geographical Journal, 165, p12-35

You can find out more about the Geological Survey and the First World War in the paper "Some aspects of the British Geological Survey’s contribution to the war effort at the Western Front, 1914–1918" by D G Bate and A L Morrison. This can be downloaded here

Andrew L Morrison

H H Thomas, the Geological Survey and the First World War

H H Thomas (P585032)

In September 1916 the Geological Survey was contacted by the Admiralty Compass Department asking for assistance with the design of aircraft compasses. The problem was with the compass point and cup which were part of the bearing that allowed the compass needle to move. Herbert H Thomas, a petrographer at the Survey, was given the task of finding a solution. The point and cup were both made out of sapphire, which caused the point to develop flaws and cracks. In a report Thomas and Survey chemist E G Radley wrote:

Page of report by Thomas and Radley (GSM/DR/St/A/20)

“It appeared desirable that sapphire should be retained as the material for the cup, and therefore we sought some slightly less hard substance suitable for the points.

   Agate, from its closely felted microscopic structure, absence of cleavage and inclusions, moderate hardness and extreme toughness, was selected as the most suitable natural substance for the purpose. It is also cheap and can be obtained easily in this country in homogenous masses.”

This combination of sapphire and agate turned out to be successful and solved the problem.

H H Thomas was also involved in the analysis of concrete from German fortifications.

In September 1917 it was noticed that German concrete pill-boxes on Vimy Ridge, which had been captured by Canadian troops, were made with gravel which could not have come from Belgium. It was suspected that the Germans had transported the gravel through the neutral Netherlands. If this was the case then it was in contravention of the Netherland's neutrality declaration as the Dutch were supposed to prevent the belligerent powers from transporting military materials across neutral territory.

By October samples of the suspect concrete had been received by the Geological Survey and analysed. One of these samples was F2397.      

 Niedermendig lava set in concrete
(F2397)

Photomicrograph of Niedermendig lava (viewed under crossed polars)
(F2397) 

In a report Thomas described it as:

 "Fine grained grey spongy lava. Tephrite. Occurs as angular fragments and chips, and has the appearance of a quarried rock. This rock by its mineral-constitution and structure is of an unmistakable type. It has all the characters of the Niedermendig tephrite, so extensively quarried on the eastern slopes of the Eifel, bordering on the Rhine. Its usual port of Shipment is Andernach" 

Page from report by Thomas (BGS Archives: GSM/PT/A/27)

This meant that the gravel must have come from Germany. This issue was so important the J J H Teall, a former Director of the Geological Survey was brought out of retirement to confirm the identification. 

The evidence resulted in a Dutch threat to stop the transport of German sand and gravel across the Netherlands.
This could have brought the Netherlands into the war but none of those involved wished this so an agreement was reached.

You can find out more about the Geological Survey and the First World War in the paper "Some aspects of the British Geological Survey’s contribution to the war effort at the Western Front, 1914–1918" by D G Bate and A L Morrison. This can be downloaded here

You can read about how one geologist, C B Wedd, was mistaken for a German spy here

You can read more about the forthcoming publication La Terre et le Feu, géologie et géologues sur le front occidental here

Andrew L Morrison