Geology at the University of Sheffield: Prof. W. G. Fearnsides, F.R.S

Abstract

NOT a few of the younger generation of geologists will learn with surprise of the retirement of Prof. W. G. Fearnsides from the Sorby chair of geology at the University of Sheffield. They will have ample ground for wonder whether anyone so patently young can have reached the age at which university professors retire, though the surprise may be lessened by the discovery that he has held the chair since its foundation thirty-two years ago, and consolation will follow the thought that geology still has the promise of his enthusiasm and energy for many years to come. Under McKenney Hughes, as a colleague of Alfred Harker, J. E. Marr, Henry Woods and Gertrude Elles, he commenced his geological career in some of the brightest days of the Cambridge school. It is not surprising that some of his earliest claims to distinction were notable contributions in the Cambridge tradition of Lower Palæozoic geology, while his characteristic versatility was foreshadowed by his concern at the same time with the teaching of petrology and the collection of quaternary bones. During this period he was a fellow of Sidney Sussex College.