Samuel Hazzledine Warren and the construction of a chronological framework for the British Quaternary in the early twentieth century

Abstract

Samuel Hazzledine Warren (1872–1958), a geologist from Essex, made a critical contribution to British Quaternary research in the first half of the twentieth century. His role has been overshadowed by the more prestigious schemes of his peers and is largely forgotten today. However, Warren's archaeological and geological observations, particularly his work at Clacton-on-Sea, assisted the efforts made by his more celebrated contemporaries to construct a reliable chronological framework for the British Quaternary. His research on the Clacton Channel and his discovery of the Clactonian industry complemented the archaeological scheme developed by Henri Breuil in the 1930s and the geological stages created by King and Oakley for the Lower Thames Valley in 1936. Warren worked at a particularly interesting time in the history of geology. He observed the rise in prominence of early palaeolithic industries as chronological markers, witnessed their influence on geological interpretations in the 1930s, and experienced the troubles which ensued when this chronological aid fell from grace in the 1940s and 1950s.