Professor David Leslie Linton (1906–1971), British geographer and geomorphologist, was professor of geography at Sheffield

University of Sheffield

The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...

 and Birmingham

University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...

, best remembered for his work on the landscape development of south-east England with S.W.Wooldridge

Sidney William Wooldridge

Professor Sidney William Wooldridge CBE, FRS, FGS , geologist, geomorphologist and geographer, was a pioneer in the study of the geomorphology of south-east England and the first professor of geography at King's College London...

, and on the development of tors.

Early life and education

David Linton was born in 1906 in New Cross

New Cross

New Cross is a district and ward of the London Borough of Lewisham, England. It is situated 4 miles south-east of Charing Cross. The ward covered by London post town and the SE 14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich...

, London, the second of three children of parents from northern Ireland. He was educated at the nearby Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham School

Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College

Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College is an Academy secondary school located. in New Cross. The school was formerly a Grammar school, then a comprehensive City Technology College and now an Academy operating between two sites near New Cross Gate in South-East London...

 and King's College London

King's College London

King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...

. He received a first class general honours degree in chemistry, physics, and geology in 1926 and a first class special honours degree in geography in 1927.

Academic career

On graduation Linton initially worked at King's as demonstrator in geology, taking over from S.W.Wooldridge

Sidney William Wooldridge

Professor Sidney William Wooldridge CBE, FRS, FGS , geologist, geomorphologist and geographer, was a pioneer in the study of the geomorphology of south-east England and the first professor of geography at King's College London...

 (later the first professor of geography at King's), who had recently completed his doctorate. In 1929 Linton moved to Edinburgh University. He nevertheless continued to collaborate with Wooldridge on a number of publications on the geology and geomorphology of south-east England during the 1930s, culminating in Structure, Surface and Drainage in South-east England (1939, republished 1955).

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Linton carried out photo reconnaissance with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve consists of a number of groupings of individual military reservists for the management and operation of the Royal Air Force's Air Training Corps and CCF Air Cadet formations, Volunteer Gliding Squadrons , Air Experience Flights, and also to form the...

, later publishing The Interpretation of Air Photographs (1947). Following the war he was appointed professor of geography at Sheffield University in 1945. In 1958 he became professor at Birmingham University, where he remained until his death in 1971.

Much of his published post-war work was on the geomorphology of Scotland, including a series of papers on river capture

River capture

Stream capture, river capture, or stream piracy is a geomorphological phenomenon occurring when a stream or river drainage system or watershed is diverted from its own bed, and flows instead down the bed of a neighbouring stream...

. Concerned with denudation chronology (the reconstruction of long-term landform history), he became involved with study of the origin of tors in Scotland, on Dartmoor

Dartmoor

Dartmoor is an area of moorland in south Devon, England. Protected by National Park status, it covers .The granite upland dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. The moorland is capped with many exposed granite hilltops known as tors, providing habitats for Dartmoor wildlife. The...

, the Pennines

Pennines

The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range, separating the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East.Often described as the "backbone of England", they form a more-or-less continuous range stretching from the Peak District in Derbyshire, around the northern and eastern edges of...

 and South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. His view was that the British tors were a product of deep chemical weathering under a tropical climate in the Tertiary

Tertiary

The Tertiary is a deprecated term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.6 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...

, exposed by erosion in the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

. This contrasted sharply with the views of others that tors are essentially arctic features produced by periglacial

Periglacial

Periglacial is an adjective originally referring to places in the edges of glacial areas, but it has later been widely used in geomorphology to describe any place where geomorphic processes related to freezing of water occur...

 processes. This was part of his wider view of the importance of pre-glacial events and forms.

At a meeting in Sheffield (with Wooldridge and others) in 1958, he was a founder member of what became the British Geomorphological Research Group

British Society for Geomorphology

The British Society for Geomorphology , formerly the British Geomorphological Research Group , is the professional association for geomorphologists in the United Kingdom. According to the society:-External links:*...

, which he chaired in 1961.

Linton was honorary editor of Geography (1947–1965) and president of section E of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

British Association for the Advancement of Science

frame|right|"The BA" logoThe British Association for the Advancement of Science or the British Science Association, formerly known as the BA, is a learned society with the object of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters, and facilitating interaction between...

 (1957), the Institute of British Geographers (1962) and the Geographical Association

Geographical Association

The Geographical Association is a Sheffield, United Kingdom-based subject association with the core charitable objective of furthering the study, learning and teaching of geography. It is a lively community of practice with over a century of innovation behind it and an unrivalled understanding of...

 (1964).

Personal life

Linton married Vera Tebbs in 1929. They had three sons and a daughter. He was a devoted family man, an able artist and musician. Though shy he was highly regarded as a lecturer and writer. He could be arrogant and disinclined to accept opposition, but was also capable of kindness. He died of cancer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham is an NHS hospital in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, situated very close to the University of Birmingham. The hospital, which cost £545 million to construct, opened in June 2010 replacing the previous Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Selly Oak Hospital...

, Edgbaston

Edgbaston

Edgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....

, Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 in 1971.

Legacy

Like Wooldridge, Linton was a fieldworker whose approach has been superseded by the study of processes and quantitative analysis. Their major work on the development of south-east England has been shown to be based on too simplistic a view of tectonic history. It nonetheless remains as an enduring monument to one of the most distinctive phases of British geomorphology.

The David Linton Award of the British Society for Geomorphology (which incorporates the British Geomorphological Research Group) is given to a geomorphologist who has made a leading contribution to the discipline over a sustained period. Among many notable recipients have been Ralph A. Bagnold, Stanley A. Schumm, Richard Chorley

Richard Chorley

Richard John Chorley was a leading figure in the late 20th century for his work in quantitative geography, and played an instrumental role in bringing in the use of systems theory to geography.-Early Education:...

, L.B. Leopold, Eric H. Brown, Michael J. Kirkby, G.H. Dury, Cuchlaine A.M. King, Denys Brunsden, M.Gordon Wolman, J.B. Thornes, Ken Gregory, David Sugden and Desmond Walling.

Linton's notebooks are held by King's College archives.

Selected publications

• Wooldridge, S.W. & Linton, D.L. (1933), The Loam-Terrains of Southeast England and their relation to its Early History. Antiquity Vol. 7 No. 27, 297–310.
• Wooldridge, S.W. & Linton, D.L. (1935), Some aspects of the Saxon settlement in southeast England considered in relation to the geographical background, Geography 20, 161-175.
• Wooldridge, S.W. & Linton, D.L. (1938a), Influence of the Pliocene transgression on the geomorphology of south-east England. Journal of Geomorphology 1, 40-54.
• Wooldridge, S.W. & Linton, D.L. (1938b), Some episodes in the structural evolution of south-east England. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 49, 264–291.
• Wooldridge, S.W. & Linton, D.L. (1939), Structure, Surface and Drainage in South-east England. Institute of British Geographers, Publication, 10. (Reissued 1955 London: George Philip.)
• Linton, D.L. & Snodgrass C.P. (1946), Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire
• Linton, D.L. (1947), The Interpretation of Air Photographs, London.
• Linton, D.L. (1948), The ideal geological map. Advancement of science 5:141-148.
• Linton, D.L. (1948), Discovery, Education and Research
• Linton, D.L. (1949a), Unglaciated areas in Scandinavia and Great Britain. Irish Geography 2: 25-33.
• Linton, D.L. (1949b), Some Scottish river captives re-examined: I The diversion of the Feshie. Scottish Geographical Magazine 65, 123–132.
• Linton, D.L. (1950a), The scenery of the Cairngorm Mountains. Journal of the Manchester Geographical Society 55: 1-14.
• Linton, D.L. (1950b), Some Scottish River captures re-examined: II The diversion of the Tarf. Scottish Geographical Magazine 66.
• Linton, D.L. (1950c), Unglaciated enclaves in glaciated regions. Journal of Glaciology 1, 451–453.
• Linton, D.L. (1951a), Watershed breaching by ice in Scotland. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
  Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
  Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers continues transactions and Papers and is a journal of the Royal Geographical Society. Transactions is considered to be at the frontier of leading international research in geography...
  
  15, 1–15.
• Linton, D.L. (1951b), Problems of Scottish scenery. Geography 41, 233-247.
• Linton, D.L. (1951c), Midland Drainage, Adv. sci. 7, 449.
• Linton, D.L. (1952), The significance of tors in glaciated lands, 17th International Congress. International Geographical Union, Washington, pp. 354–357.
• Linton, D. L. (1954), Some Scottish river captures re-examined: III. The beheading of the Don. Scottish Geographical Magazine 70: 64-78.
• Linton, D.L. (1955), The problem of tors, Geographical Journal 121(4), 470-487
• Linton, D.L. (ed.) (1956), Sheffield and its Region: a Scientific and Historical Survey, British Association for the Advancement of Science, London.
• Linton, D.L. Geomorphology. In: Linton, D.L, (ed.) ibid, 24-43.
• Linton, D.L. (1959a), River Flow in Great Britain, 1955–56, Nature 183, 714.
• Linton, D.L. (1959b), Morphological contrasts between eastern and western Scotland. In: R. Miller and J.W. Watson (Editors), Geographical essays in memory of Alan G. Ogilvie. Nelson, Edinburgh, pp. 16–45.
• Linton, D.L. & Moisley, H.A. (1960) The origin of Loch Lomond. Scottish Geographical Magazine 76, 26-37.
• Linton, D.L. (1962). Glacial erosion on soft-rock outcrops in central Scotland. Builetyn Peryglacjalny 11, 247-257.
• Linton, D.L. (1963), The forms of glacial erosion. Trans. IBG 33, 1–28.
• Linton, D.L. (1964), The origin of the Pennine tors - an essay in analysis. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie 8: 5-24.
• Linton, D.L. & Moseley, F. (1968), The Geological Ages, Cambridge University Press
  Cambridge University Press
  Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
  
  
• Linton, D.L. (1968) The Assessment Of Scenery As A Natural Resource. Scottish Geographical Magazine 84.
• Linton, D.L. (1969). Evidences of Pleistocene cryonival phenomena in South Africa. Palaeoecol. Afr. Surround. Isl. 5, 71–89.

Awards

In 1942 Linton, with Wooldridge, received the Murchison Award

Murchison Award

The Murchison Award was first given by the Royal Geographical Society in 1882 for publications judged to have contributed most to geographical science in preceding recent years.-Recipients:* 1895 Eivind Astrup* 1898 Herbert Warrington Smyth...

 from the Royal Geographical Society

Royal Geographical Society

The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...

. In 1971 he was appointed an honorary fellow of King's College London.