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Gordon Leslie Herries Davies

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British geographer

Gordon Leslie Herries Davies (born Gordon Leslie Davies; 18 January 1932 in Manchester – 22 February 2019 in North Uist, Scotland) was a British and Irish geographer, specializing in geomorphology, and a historian of geography and geology. He was the president of the Geographical Society of Ireland from 1962 to 1964.

Biography

As a child at the beginning of WW II, he was evacuated to Blackpool, but returned to Manchester after a brief time. G. L. Davies matriculated in 1949 to read geography at the University of Manchester. There he graduated in 1953 with an M.A. with a thesis on geomorphology in North Wales. In October 1954 he joined the academic staff of Trinity College Dublin (TCD). In TCD's department of geography, he was from an Assistant Lecturer from 1954 to 1957, a Lecturer from 1957 to 1970, and an Associate Professor from 1970 to 1989, when he when retired with emeritus status. In 1967 he was elected to Fellowship of TCD. At TCD he received a second M.A. jure officii on the basis of his academic standing. On sabbatical leave in Oregon, he completed his first book, Earth in Decay (1969), which earned him a Ph.D. from TCD. The book deals with the history of British geomorphology before 1878.

In 1977 Gordon Leslie Davies changed his name to "Gordon Leslie Herries Davies" — "Herries" was his mother's surname before her marriage. The reason for the name change was that K. Gordon Davies (1923–1994) was appointed in 1977 to the Erasmus Smith Chair of Modern History at TCD.

In November 1980, Davies gave the Ramsbottom Lecture to the Society for the History of Natural History. The lecture entitled The Mapping of Natural Phenomena in 19th Century Ireland was expanded into his 1983 book Sheets of Many Colours.

At TCD he served as a College Tutor for a number of years and, later in his career, as Senior Proctor. He served as editor of the journal Irish Geography from 1968 to 1978 and edited the journal's supplementary volume celebrating its golden jubilee year of 1984. In retirement, Herries Davies expended considerable effort as one of the editors for ‘The Dictionary of Irish Biography.

Herries Davies wrote numerous articles published in learned journals and also wrote several important books. He was an excellent writer with a clear expository style. His book The earth in decay (1969) is a significant work in the history of geomorphology. Sheets of many colours (1983) describes Irish geological mapping. North from the Hook (1995) gives a history of the Geological Survey of Ireland. In his 1995 book, he emphasizes that collecting fossils was always a "high priority" for the Geological Survey of Ireland. Whatever is under the Earth (2007) tells the history of the Geological Society of London from 1807 to 2007. He published in 1978 an overview of research on Earth sciences published in 23 Irish serial publications from 1787 to 1977.

Herries Davies was elected in 1979 a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He was honoured with the Sue Tyler Friedman Medal of the Geological Society of London in 1996, the History of Geology Award of the Geological Society of America in 1997, and the Founder’s Medal of the Society for the History of Natural History in 2000.

Desmond Alfred Gillmor, an emeritus professor at TCD, gave, in a 2019 memorial tribute, a description of the geographical work of Herries Davies.

In 1956 he married Kathleen Mary Fryer in Chester. They had two sons.

Selected publications

Articles

Books

  • Herries Davies, G. L. (1969). The Earth in Decay: a history of British geomorphology 1578–1878. Macdonald and Co., London; Elsevier, New York. LCCN 77415308.
  • Herries Davies, G. L.; Stephens, Nicholas (1978). Ireland. London: Methuen. ISBN 0416846408. LCCN 79308541; with contributions on the Pleistocene history from Francis M. Synge{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Herries Davies, Gordon L. (1983). Sheets of many colours: the mapping of Ireland's rocks, 1750-1890. Dublin: Royal Dublin Society. ISBN 0-86027-014-9. LCCN 83230633.
  • G.L. Herries Davies G. L.; Orme, Antony R. (1989). Two centuries of earth science, 1650-1850: papers presented at a Clark Library seminar, 3 November 1984. Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles. LCCN 89008877.
  • Davies, Gordon L. Herries, ed. (1984). Irish geography: the Geographical Society of Ireland golden jubilee, 1934-1984. Dublin: Geographical Society of Ireland. LCCN 90143937.
  • Herries Davies, Gordon L. (1995). North from the Hook: 150 years of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Dublin: Geological Survey of Ireland.
  • Herries Davies, G. L. (2007). Whatever is Under the Earth the Geological Society of London 1807-2007. ISBN 9781862392144. LCCN 2007276571; foreword by Richard Forley{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)

References

  1. ^ Horner, Arnold (13 March 2019). "In Memory of Gordon Herries Davies (1932-2019)". GSI News, Geographical Society of Ireland.
  2. Davies, Gordon L. (1964). "From flood and fire to rivers and ice-three hundred years of Irish geomorphology: A presidential address delivered before the Geographical Society of Ireland on October 22nd 1963". Irish Geography. 5: 1–16. doi:10.1080/00750776409555577.
  3. ^ Torrens, Hugh S.; Wyse Jackson, Patrick N. (June 2020). "Obituary. Gordon Leslie Herries Davies (1932-2019)" (PDF). INHIGEO Annual Record No. 52. International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences: 57–58. (covering events and activities during 2019)
  4. Good, Gregory A. (18 October 2019). Sciences of the Earth: An Encyclopedia of Events, People, and Phenomena. Routledge. ISBN 9781136760976.
  5. According to Tobias Krüger, on p. 300 of Earth in Decay (1969), Herries Davies erroneously asserts that Searles Valentine Wood was the first to develop the idea of glacial eustacy — Charles Maclaren's 1841 publication in The Scotsman preceded Wood's publications on glacial eustacy. Krüger, Tobias (17 June 2013). Discovering the Ice Ages: International Reception and Consequences for a Historical Understanding of Climate. Brill. p. 274. ISBN 9789004241701; translated by Ann M. Hentschel{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  6. "Obituary. Kenneth Gordon Davies". Baltimore Sun. March 23, 1994.
  7. Herries Davies, Gordon L., ed. (1984). Irish geography: the Geographical Society of Ireland golden jubilee, 1934-1984, volume 17 (supplement) of Irish Geography. Dublin: Geographical Society of Ireland. LCCN 90143937.
  8. ^ Cannon, Walter F. (Spring 1970). "Review of The Earth in Decay. A History of British Geomorphology, 1578-1878 by Gordon L. Davies". Isis. 61 (1). doi:10.1086/350599.
  9. Davidson, Jane P. (21 August 2017). Patrons of Paleontology: How Government Support Shaped a Science. Indiana University Press. p. 114. ISBN 9780253033567.
  10. ^ Rudwick, Martin (2008). "Review of Whatever is under the Earth: The Geological Society of London, 1807 to 2007 by Gordon L. Herries Davies". Isis. 99 (2): 419–420. doi:10.1086/591360.
  11. Herries Davies, Gordon L (1978). "The Earth Sciences in Irish Serial Publications 1787-1977". Journal of Earth Sciences. 1 (1): 1–23. JSTOR 30002108.
  12. Gillmor, Desmond A. (2019). "Gordon Herries Davies, 1932-2019". Irish Geography. 52 (2): 239–244.
  13. Hamilton, Beryl M. (November 1984). "Review of Sheets of Many Colours. The Mapping of Ireland's Rocks. 1750–1890 by Gordon L. Herries Davies". The British Journal for the History of Science. 17 (3): 313. doi:10.1017/S000708740002135X. S2CID 143574011.
  14. Thackray, J. C. (1996). "Review of North from the Hook, 150 years of the Geological Survey of Ireland by Gordon L. Herries Davies". Archives of Natural History. 23 (3): 453. doi:10.3366/anh.1996.23.3.453.
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