KING, WILLIAM BERNARD ROBINSON

(b. West Burton, Yorkshire, England, 12 November 1889; d. 23 January 1963)

geology (stratigraphy), paleontology, military geology (hydrology).

King, the descendant of a long line of Yorkshiremen, was the younger son of William Robinson King, Jr., a solicitor, and Florence Muriel The ed King. He attended a local preparatory school. then Uppingham. In 1980 he entered Jesus College, Cambridge, and read the natural sciences tripos. In 1912 he graduated in the first-class in geology and was awarded the Harkness Scholarship. King then worked for two years as a field surveyor for the Geological Survey of Great Britain, mapping Ordovician and Silurian rocks in the Oswestry area and the Lake District until the outbreak of World War I. In 1914 he was commissioned second lieutenant in the Seventh Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers and was sent to France to provide geological advice on ensuring an adequate water supply for the army in trench warfare. On 7 June 1916. King married Margaret Amy Passingham; they had two daughters, Margaret Cuchlaine the latter a noted geographer/oceanographer in her own right.

For his work with the Royal Engineers during the war, King was awarded the O. B. E. In 1920 he accepted th posts of demonstrator and assistant to Professor J. E. Marr at Cambridge. King was elected a fellow of Jesus college, and in 1922 he was elected a fellow of Magdalence College and held the Charles kingsley lectureship. In 1931 he accepted the Yates-Goldsmid chair of geology at University College, London, but kept his association with Magdalene College. In 1936 Cambridge awarded him the higher doctoral degree, Sc.D., upon submission of published works. While he was a professor in London, World War II started and King, now a major (later promoted to lieutenant colonel), was again called to serve as a geologist in France. He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery, for driving the lead truck of a convoy carrying high explosives through enemy lines during the Dunkirk withdrawal. King was elected to the Woodwardian chair at Cambridge, once held by the illustrious geologist Adam Sedgwick, in 1943.

King received many honors in his lifetime. He was on the Council of the Geological Society of London for seventeen years and served as president from 1953 to 1955. He was president of the Yorkshire Geological Society in 1949 and 1950. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1949 and was foreign correspondent of the Palaeontological Society of India, the Geological Society of America. and the Geological Society of France. King received the Wollaston Fund Award in 1920 and the Murchison Medal in 1951 from the Geological Society of London; the Gosselet Medal in 1923 from the Société Geologique du Nord; and the Prix Prestwich in 1945 from the Geological Society of France. The French universities of Lille and of Rennes conferred honorary doctorates upon him in 1947 and 1952, respectively, King died of thrombosis after a relatively minor operation.

Military geology as a branch of geology has long been ignored by the scientific community and by historians of earth science. The application of geology to military action, however, has had untold effect on the outcome of political/military disputes, aside from contributing to the development of the science itself. For example, during World War I. the neutral Dutch government was made to stop allowing German transport of materials through Dutch canals into Belgium after King proved that captured concrete aggregate contained Niedermendig basalt fragments from the Rhineland (Shotton. 1963). In addition, King’s pioneering work (1921) on hydrogeology, or hydrology, based on his wartime borings in the region of the Somme River, was a significant contribution. He was highly successful in finding water supplies for the troops. and his deducitons on the fluctuations of the water table and his knowledge of the geology of the area provided invaluable countertunneling beneath enemy lines to plant explosives.

King’s work as a military geologist during World War II Was instrumental in the seleciton of the Normandy coast for the Allied invasion. The original choice for the landing site was the Cotentin peninsula, with Cherbourg to bne used as a port to receive supplies. According to F. W. Shotton (personal communication), student and colleague of King, the plan to set up several airfields for fighters to counter enemy strikes was not carried out because King advised that the rugged Lower Paleozoic rocks there would afford no flat ground suitable for the quick construction of airfields. At his suggestion. the invasion area was changed to Normandy, where the flat Middle Jurassic limestone, covered usually by loess, could support the quick construction of small airfields, and its extension below low tide allowed the setting up of blockship and pontoon Mulberry harbors. King had further alerted the Allied Command regarding the possibility of more obstacles in the invasion beaches in Normandy “than were dreamed of by the Intelligence Corps” (Shotton. personal communication). These obstacles were met by Allied troops when they landed on the beachheads. King retired from the army in 1943 upon his election to the Woodwardian chair.

In his stratigraphic work, King did not limit his interest to a narrow period in geologic history, although his main contributions were on the Lower Paleozoic. He also published on the stratigraphy of the Pleistocene, and on the geology of the floor of the English Channel. Simultaneously he made contributions in the fields of paleontology, having described Cambrain fauna of the Salt Range of lndia (1941) and trilobites of Persia (1930) and having named some new genera and species. He also appears to have been the first to recognize the distinctive Hippopotamus fauna as being characteristic of the last major interglacial period, although this observation is usually attributed to A. Sutcliffe (Andrew Currant, personal communication).

King was considered a first-rate field geologist in the classical mold. His students appreciated his encouragement and keen interest in their work. His Lower Paleozoic work included publications (1923, 1928) on the Carodocian and the Ashgillian and their relation to each other and to the unconformable Silurian in the Berwyn Hills and the Meifod district, respectively. He recognized that the black shale known as the Pen-y-garnedd shales, containing a scarce benthic fauna as well as abundant graptolites, had been laid down in anoxic conditions in shallow offshore lagoons. In 1932 and (with W. H.Wilcockson) in 1934, King published numerous observations on these formations in his home county of Yorkshire, including the description of a band of fossiliferous Ashgillian limestone that proved to be a Neptunian dike in the highly inclined Ingletonian rocks, proving the older age (Precambrian) of the latter, The age of the Ingletonian at that time was in dispute, as some thought it was Upper Ordovician. In 1948, King (with Alwyn Williams)published his last paper on the British Lower Paleozoic. The authors reclassified the Ashgillian of King’s mentor, J. E.Marr, and subdivided it into three faunal zones.

King’s detailed and farsighted observations on the Pleistocene succession were eclipsed by later work by others who based their biostratigraphy on palynological evidence. His presidential address (1955)to the Geological Society of London, however, embodied “a wealth of integrated knowledge that is still of direct value today” (Andrew Currant, personal communication). At present a revival of King’s type of approach, involving detailed fieldwork on a regional scale, seems to be taking place in Great Britain, so that a thorough reexamination fo his work is indicated.

Long before the explosion of interest in oceangraphic geological exploration, King became interested in the application of geophysical techniques to the study of the geology of the English Channel (1949). and showed that the en echelon pattern of folding observed on both the English and the French coasts is continuous across the floor of the Channel. He Published (1953, with M. N. Hill; 1954) on the interpretation of seismic data in the English Channel. He also collaborated with Edward Bullard (1954) in a discussion of the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

To add further variety to his professional life, King contributed geologic evidence to the reports on the Mid-Pleistocene Swanscombe finds of human skull remains and associated animal bones and implements.

King’s career, therefore, was highly varied. He made valuable contributions in stratigraphy and paleontology and his contributions in military geology were outstanding.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Original Works. King’s publications are listed in a complete bib;BIBLIOGRAPHY by F. W.Shooton, “William Bernard Robinson King, 1889–1963,” in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 9 (1963), 171– 182. King’s archival materials covering the period 1946– 1955 are in the Cambridge University Archives. file no 32/40

II. Secondary Literature. Besides the Shotton memorial see a momorial by T. C.Nicholas in Proceedings of the Geological Society of London (1962–1963) nos 1603–1611.pp. 150–153; and an obituary by F. W.Shotton “prof. W. B. R. King, O. B. E., F. R. S.,” in Nature, 198 (1963).244. In addition a lengthy obituary appeared in The Times (London), 26 January 1963. 10: and a short announcement (with photo) in Illustrated London News. 2 February 1963. 167.

Personal communications with King’s daughter Cuchlaine. with A. M. King and with F. W.Shotton were of great value in writing this essay In addition the following individuals provided insight in the evaluation of King’s contributions Art Boucot. Andrew Currant. Desmond Donovan, Angharad Hills. C. H. Holland. J. D. Lawson, H. B. Whittington and Alwyn Williams

Ellen T. Drake