P. G. H. BOSWELL Percy George Hamnall Boswell died in Ruthin on 22nd December,

1960. He had been ill for several years and his death at the age of 74 was not unexpected but will none the less sadden his wide circle of friends, among them many in Liverpool, for his connection with Liverpool extended over more than half his life. He was appointed the first holder of the George Herdman Chair of Geology in the University of Liverpool in 1917, and his last geological paper, written not long before he died, appears in this number of the Journal.

Born at Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1886, Boswell became interested in geology through collecting and studying fossils and rocks from the Crag deposits of the district. His pertinacity and thoroughness were already evident when at the age of nineteen he was invited, as a local expert, to participate in a Geologists’ Association excursion to the Ipswich district. He graduated from the Royal School of Mines, and in 1914 joined the staff there as Demonstrator in Geology with par- ticular responsibility for organising a course in geology for engineers.

His early work in East Anglia was soon extended to the Eocene, Chalk and Pleistocene and from then East Anglian geology always remained one of his main interests. From work on the Pleistocene deposits his interest spread to the fields where geology and archaeology overlap, an interest that eventually led him to visit and report on archaeological sites in East Africa. It was also from his East Anglian work that his main geological work on the study of sedimentary rocks developed. Finding that in the Eocene beds the fossils did not provide enough stratigraphical control, he turned to the study of the detrital minerals in the hope that the assemblages might have some strati- graphic value. This was a highly rewarding field, unaccountably neglected by British petrologists conventionally limited to studying igneous and metamorphic rocks. Boswell found a rich variety of detrital minerals as he rapidly explored the sediments of the British strati- graphical succession. Soon too he was able to put this knowledge to practical use when as scientific advisor to the Ministry of Munitions in the first World War, he was able to locate new sources for glass sands and refractories when foreign supplies were cut off. He studied and published on the assemblages of detrital minerals in British sediments, the grain size distribution in sands, the relative stability of hfferent minerals in sediments, the precip;r?.tion of colloidal clay suspensions, the physical properties of clays and their measurement, and many other aspects of sedimentary rocks. He acquired an international reputation as a sedimentary petrologist and will be long remembered for his pioneer work in this field.

At Liverpool Boswell quickly organised a flourishing School of Geology. He had the & of stimulating students. He was young, enthusiastic and energetic; he had a clear incisive mind, wide interests and a store of exact knowledge. He constantly insisted on accurate measurement and on objectivity; he scorned speculation. E e took a close and lasting interest in the progress and careers of his students, and was proud of their achievements. He was no remote professor. Thus the writer, while a student, went with Boswell and his colleague, I. S. Double, to the South African meetings of the British Association and the International Geological Congress. The three shared a cabin and shared life on the ship going out and shared geological experiences in South Africa. Not all professors give so much time to their students.

He and some of his students carried on researches on sediments. At the same time he turned to the Lower Palaeozoic rocks of North Wales, himself embarking on the formidable task of remapping the Silurian of the Denbighshire Moors while his students, notably Howel and David Williams, began remapping Snowdonia and G. H. Mitchell the Borrowdale Volcanin in the Lake District. A new building for the Department of Geology was planned and in 1929 completed and brought into use. While in Liverpool Boswell took an active part in the Liverpool Geological Society, of which he was President from 1921-23 He received the Society’s medal in 1927. One of his closest friends was Emil Montag, then Swiss Consul in Liverpool, and with Montag and others, Boswell went many times to the Alps, gaining a first hand knowledge of the geology of both Swiss and Austrian Alps. While at Liverpool he was also concerned with the engineering applications of geology; the geological aspects of the New Mersey Tunnel were dis- cussed in a valuable paper published in the Proceedings of rhe Liverpool Geological Soaery in 1937. Other important work, notably on the silting of the Mersey estuary, remained unpublished.

In 1930 Boswell left Liverpool to take the Chair of Geology at Imperial College. In 1931 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In London he became more and more immersed in administration and the work of committees, for which his incisive mind and practical ability fitted him so well. He was General Secretary and later Treasurer of the British Association, and Secretary and later President of the Geological Society of London. By 1939, unwell and overstrained, he decided to retire from public and academic life. He resigned his chair, married, built up a fuller and more peaceful private life, and pursued his own research interests, though he continued to act in an advisory capacity, notably as Consultant to the Metropolitan Water Board.

Eventually he returned to live in a house near Dyserth from which he could look over the Denbighshire Moors to the Snowdon range. He could look back on a full life throughout which he had devoted himself to the science of geology. Those who knew him best realised most clearly that he was a great man. He is survived by his wife, Hope.

R. M. SHACKLETON.