IX.— Obituary Notices: H. R. J. Conacher; William McLean; J. G. Roberts

Abstract

H. R. J. Conacher.—Mr. H. R. J. Conacher, who died suddenly on April 12th, 1945, at the age of 60, had a long and close association with the Geological Society of Glasgow. He joined it as an Associate Member in 1911, became a Member in 1912, and was enrolled as a Life Member in 1916. For a number of years, 1913-1916, he acted as Joint-Honorary Secretary, combining this post with that of Joint-Editor of the Transactions. He was elected a Vice-President in 1920. Mr. Conacher entered the service of the Pumpherston Oil Company in 1899 and was early attracted to the study of the geological aspects of the Lothians’ oil-shales. He studied geology under the late Professor J. W. Gregory and in 1913 began the series of researches which he carried out over a number of years on the microscopic structure of shales, torbanites and cannels. He accompanied Sir William Fraser (now Chairman of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) during the 1914-1918 war as confidential secretary for the meetings of the Inter-Allied Petroleum Specification Commission. Later, he visited America to investigate and report on the oil-shale deposits of Colorado and Utah, and in 1935 was sent to Australia to prepare a report for the Commonwealth Government on Australian oil-shales. He took the opportunity of this latter journey to visit the chief centres of the Anglo-Iranian Company’s operations in Iran. In addition to possessing an intimate knowledge of the oil-shale fields of Scotland, he had a wide experience of shale-fields abroad and This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract