Herbert Harold Read
{{Short description|British geologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2017}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Herbert Harold Read
| honorific_suffix = FRS
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| image =
| image_size =
| image_upright =
| landscape =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1889|12|17}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1970|03|29 |1889|12|17}}
| death_place =
| death_cause =
| resting_place =
| resting_place_coordinates =
| other_names =
| siglum =
| pronounce =
| citizenship =
| nationality =
| fields = Geology
| workplaces = British Geological Survey
University of Liverpool
Imperial College, London
| patrons =
| education =
| alma_mater = University of London
| thesis_title =
| thesis_url =
| thesis_year =
| doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors =
| doctoral_students = Janet Vida Watson
John Sutton
Derek Flinn
| notable_students =
| known_for =
| awards = Fellow of the Royal Society (1939)
Wollaston Medal (1952)
Royal Medal (1963)
Penrose Medal (1967)
| author_abbrev_bot =
| author_abbrev_zoo =
| spouse = Edith Browning
| partner =
| children =
| parents =
| father =
| mother =
| relatives =
| signature =
| signature_type =
| signature_alt =
| website =
| footnotes =
}}
Herbert Harold Read FRS,{{Cite journal | last1 = Sutton | first1 = J. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1970.0020 | title = Herbert Harold Read. 1889-1970 | journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 16 | pages = 479–497| year = 1970 | doi-access = free }} FRSE, FGS, (17 December 1889, in Whitstable – 29 March 1970){{Cite ODNB | title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/35696 | year = 2004 }}‘READ, Herbert Harold’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U58065 accessed 1 March 2009] was a British geologist and Professor of Geology at Imperial College. From 1947-1948 he was president of the Geological Society.
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.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=9 February 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}
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.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=9 February 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1939 and won its Royal Medal in 1963 for "outstanding contributions to the understanding of the processes of rock metamorphism and the origins of granite".{{cite web|url=http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1751|title=Royal archive winners 1989 - 1950|work=Awards, medals and prize lectures|publisher=Royal Society|access-date=2009-02-28}} 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. He served as Dean of the Royal School of Mines from 1943-45.{{cite book|title=History Of Imperial College London, 1907-2007|first=Gay| last=Hannah|page=752}}
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.{{citation|url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/fedgov/70039167/report.pdf |accessdate=2023-12-03 |edition=2
|editor-last=Alberts |title=Geographic Names of the Antarctic |editor-first=Fred G. |page=607
|publisher=United States Board on Geographic Names |year=1995}} {{Include-USGov |agency=United States Board on Geographic Names}}
He died on 29 March 1970. In 1917 he had married Edith Browning.
Publications
- British Regional Geology: The Grampian Highlands. [https://archive.org/details/ScotlandGrampianHighlandsBritishRegionalGeologyImages 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){{cite book |author=Young, Davis A. |title=Mind over magma: the story of igneous petrology |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, N.J |year=2003 |page= 50 |isbn=0-691-10279-1 }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Internet Archive author |sname= Herbert Harold Read}}
{{GLS Presidents}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, Herbert Harold}}
Category:People from Whitstable
Category:Alumni of the University of London
Category:20th-century British geologists
Category:Penrose Medal winners
Category:Wollaston Medal winners
Category:Fellows of the Geological Society of London
Category:Academics of Imperial College London
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:Presidents of the Geologists' Association
Category:Presidents of the Geological Society of London
{{ImperialCollege-stub}}