Sidney William Wooldridge
Encyclopedia
Professor Sidney William Wooldridge CBE
, FRS, FGS
(1900–1963), 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
. He collaborated with Dudley Stamp
and with David Linton
.
, North London
in 1900, the younger son of a bank clerk. His early childhood was spent in Cheam
, Surrey
, and his later schooling in Wood Green
, north London, where he also took evening classes in geology
. He read geology at King's College London
(1918-1921), graduating with a first-class degree. Research in petrology
led to an MSc
(1923) and DSc
(1927). His study of the Tertiary
and Pleistocene
deposits of the North Downs
and Chiltern Hills
of southern England led to an interest in geomorphology.
(LSE). In the Joint School of Geography King's offered Geomorphology, Meteorology, Biogeography and the History of Geographical Discovery, while the LSE offered the Regional and Economic aspects, Historical Geography, and the Distribution of Man.
During World War II
this arrangement was disrupted by the evacuation
of King's to Bristol
, requiring Wooldridge to teach human geography. His conversion to geography complete, he became professor of geography at Birkbeck College, London
in 1944, returning to King's in 1947 as its first professor of geography and remaining until his death in 1963.
Wooldridge was a founder-member of the Institute of British Geographers (1933) for academics dissatisfied with the Royal Geographical Society
's focus on amateur research and exploration; he was later IBG president (1949-50). He did not break completely with the RGS, serving on its council (1947–51). Wooldridge also served as president of the geography section of the British Association
(1950) and chaired the Field Studies Council
in 1952.
and the Weald
, his first (1921) paper being on folding within the London Basin. Other publications looked at the Reading Beds, Eocene
and Pliocene
deposits and the structural and geomorphological evolution of the basin. Inspired by the theories of W.M.Davis
on cycles of landscape evolution
, Wooldridge employed detailed fieldwork to identify features such as river terraces and erosion surface
s, for example a presumed platform at 200 feet above modern sea level. In the later 1930s collaboration with colleague David Linton
culminated in the 1939 classic Structure, Surface and Drainage of South-East England.
The 'Wooldridge and Linton Model' of landscape evolution was dependent on the identification of remnants of three widely developed erosion surfaces: a warped sub-Eocene surface; a high-level unwarped Neogene
peneplain
and an unwarped Plio-Pleistocene marine platform. It explained both the concordant drainage pattern of the central Weald (through long-term sub-aerial erosion), and the widespread discordant features (as being related to a high-level marine shelf).
Wooldridge also collaborated with fellow King's alumnus Dudley Stamp
. Wooldridge had provided petrological input to a paper with Stamp on the Silurian
of Wales
as early as 1923 and, like Stamp, moved from geology towards human geography. Wooldridge's interest lay in relating early human settlement and land use to the physical landscape. In 1951 Stamp at LSE and Wooldridge at King's jointly edited London Essays in Geography.
) and an amateur operetta
enthusiast. He continued to work after a stroke
in 1954, dying in 1963.
Wooldridge, S.W. & Berdinner, H.C. (1922), Notes on the geology of the Langdon Hills, Essex. Proc. Geol. Assoc. 33: 320-323.
Wells A.K. & Wooldridge, S.W. (1923a), The mechanism of Sedimentation cycles. Geological Mag. 60: 545-60.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1923), Minor structures of the London Basin. Proc. Geol. Assoc. 34: 175-193.
Wells A.K. & Wooldridge, S.W. (1923b), Notes on the geology of Epping Forest. Proc. Geol. Assoc. 34: 244-252.
Stamp, L.D.
& Wooldridge, S.W. (1923), The Igneous and Associated Rocks of Llanwrtyd (Brecon), Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 79 issue.1-4, p. 16-46
Cornes, H.W. & Wooldridge, S.W. (1923), A system of basic intrusions at the northern end of the island of Sark. Geol. Mag. 60: 500-505.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1924), The Bagshot Beds of Essex. Proc. Geol. Assoc. 35: 359-383.
Wooldridge, S.W. & Gill, D.M.C. (1925), The Reading Beds of Lane End, Bucks, and their bearing on some unsolved problems of London geology. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 36, 146-173.
Wooldridge, S.W. & Stockley, G.M. (1925), The petrology of Sark. Geol. Mag. 62: 241-252.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1925), The tectonics of the southern Midlands. Geol. Mag. 62: 559-60-252.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1926), The structural evolution of the London Basin. Proc. Geol. Assoc. 37 No. 2, 162–196.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1927), The Pliocene period in the London Basin. Proc. Geol. Assoc. 38, 49-132.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1928), The 200-foot platform in the London Basin. Proc. Geol. Assoc. 39, 1-26.
Wells A.K. & Wooldridge S.W. (1931), The rock groups of Jersey, with special reference to intrusive phenomena at Ronez. Proc. Geol. Assoc. XIII: 178 215.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1932), The Physiographic Evolution of the London Basin. Geography 17, 99-116.
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. & Ewing, C.J.C. (1935), The Eocene and Pliocene deposits of Lane End, Buckinghamshire. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 91, 293-317.
Wooldridge, S.W. & Morgan, R.S. (1937), The Physical Basis of Geography. An Outline of Geomorphology. London: Longmans, Green.
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.)
Wooldridge, S.W. (1945), Yorkshire (North Riding) in The Land of Britain - The Report of The Land Utilisation Survey of Britain (Ed. Stamp, L.D.)
Wooldridge, S.W. (1949), Geomorphology and soil science. Journal of Soil Science 1, 31–34.
Wooldridge, S.W. & Beaver, S.H. (1950) 'The working of sand and gravel in Britain: a problem in land use', Geographical . 115: 42-57
Stamp, L.D. & Wooldridge S.W., eds (1951) London Essays in Geography. London: Longmans, Green & Co., for London School of Economics.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1951), 'The progress of geomorphology', in G. Taylor (ed.) Geography in the Twentieth Century, London, ch. 7.
Wooldridge, S.W. & East, W.G. (1951), The Spirit & Purpose of Geography. London: Hutchinson.
Wooldridge, S.W. & Goldring, F. (1953), The Weald. New Naturalist
series, London: Collins.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1955) The status of geography and the role of fieldwork. Geography 40, 73-83.
O'Dell A.C., East, W.G. & Wooldridge S.W. (1956), Railways and Geography. London: Hutchinson's University Library
Wooldridge, S.W. (1956). The Geographer as Scientist: Essays on the Scope and Nature of Geography. London: Nelson. Contains Wooldridge's 1946 Birkbeck College inaugural lecture, The geographer as scientist.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1957), Some Aspects of the Physiography of the Thames Valley in Relation to the Ice Age and Early Man. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, Vol. 23 pp1–19.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1958), The trend of geomorphology. Transactions Institute of British Geographers 25, 29–35.
Wooldridge, S.W. (1960), The Pleistocene succession in the London Basin. Proc. Geol. Assoc. 71, 113–129.
with David Linton
in 1942. He was made CBE
in 1954 in recognition of his work on the Sand and Gravel Council. In 1957 he received the Royal Geographical Society's Victoria Medal
and in 1959 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a rare honour among geographers.
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
, FRS, FGS
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...
(1900–1963), geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
, geomorphologist
Geomorphology
Geomorphology is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them...
and geographer
Geographer
A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
, was a pioneer in the study of the geomorphology of south-east England and the first professor of geography at 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 collaborated with Dudley Stamp
Laurence Dudley Stamp
Sir Dudley Stamp, CBE, DSc, D. Litt, LLD, Ekon D, DSc Nat , was professor of geography at Rangoon and London, and one of the internationally best known British geographers of the 20th century....
and with David Linton
David Leslie Linton
Professor David Leslie Linton , British geographer and geomorphologist, was professor of geography at Sheffield and Birmingham, best remembered for his work on the landscape development of south-east England with S.W.Wooldridge, and on the development of tors.-Early life and education:David Linton...
.
Early life and education
Sidney Wooldridge was born in HornseyHornsey
Hornsey is a district in London Borough of Haringey in north London in England. Whilst Hornsey was formerly the name of a parish and later a municipal borough of Middlesex, today, the name refers only to the London district. It is an inner-suburban area located north of Charing Cross.-Locale:The ...
, North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
in 1900, the younger son of a bank clerk. His early childhood was spent in Cheam
Cheam
Cheam is a large suburban village close to Sutton in the London Borough of Sutton, England, and is located close to the southern boundary between Greater London and Surrey. It is divided into two main areas: North Cheam and Cheam Village. North Cheam includes more retail shops and supermarkets,...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, and his later schooling in Wood Green
Wood Green
Wood Green is a district in north London, England, located in the London Borough of Haringey. It is situated north of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of the metropolitan centres in Greater London.-History:...
, north London, where he also took evening classes in geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
. He read geology at 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...
(1918-1921), graduating with a first-class degree. Research in petrology
Petrology
Petrology is the branch of geology that studies rocks, and the conditions in which rocks form....
led to an MSc
MSC
- Computers:* Mario Strikers Charged* Microsoft Common Console Document, file for the Microsoft Management Console* Microelectronics Support Centre* Microsoft Corporation* MIDI Show Control* Message Sequence Chart...
(1923) and DSc
DSC
-in academia:* D.Sc., Doctor of Science* Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine* Dalton State College, Georgia* Daytona State College, Florida* Deep Springs College, California* Dixie State College of Utah...
(1927). His study of 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...
and 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 ....
deposits of the North Downs
North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty , the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs...
and Chiltern Hills
Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...
of southern England led to an interest in geomorphology.
Academic career
In the 1920s and 30s Wooldridge lectured at King's on a combined geography and geology course with the London School of EconomicsLondon School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
(LSE). In the Joint School of Geography King's offered Geomorphology, Meteorology, Biogeography and the History of Geographical Discovery, while the LSE offered the Regional and Economic aspects, Historical Geography, and the Distribution of Man.
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...
this arrangement was disrupted by the evacuation
Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II
Evacuation of civilians in Britain during the Second World War was designed to save the population of urban or military areas in the United Kingdom from aerial bombing of cities and military targets such as docks. Civilians, particularly children, were moved to areas thought to be less at risk....
of King's to Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, requiring Wooldridge to teach human geography. His conversion to geography complete, he became professor of geography at Birkbeck College, London
Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...
in 1944, returning to King's in 1947 as its first professor of geography and remaining until his death in 1963.
Wooldridge was a founder-member of the Institute of British Geographers (1933) for academics dissatisfied with 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...
's focus on amateur research and exploration; he was later IBG president (1949-50). He did not break completely with the RGS, serving on its council (1947–51). Wooldridge also served as president of the geography section of the British Association
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...
(1950) and chaired the Field Studies Council
Field Studies Council
The Field Studies Council is an educational charity based in the UK. It opened its first Field Centre in 1947 at Flatford Mill, and now operates 17 Field Centres in various locations in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland offering both residential and non-residential field courses...
in 1952.
Research
Wooldridge's work concentrated mainly on the London BasinLondon Basin
The London Basin is an elongated, roughly triangular sedimentary basin approximately long which underlies London and a large area of south east England, south eastern East Anglia and the adjacent North Sea...
and the Weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...
, his first (1921) paper being on folding within the London Basin. Other publications looked at the Reading Beds, Eocene
Eocene
The Eocene Epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the...
and Pliocene
Pliocene
The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...
deposits and the structural and geomorphological evolution of the basin. Inspired by the theories of W.M.Davis
William Morris Davis
William Morris Davis was an American geographer, geologist, geomorphologist, and meteorologist, often called the "father of American geography"....
on cycles of landscape evolution
Cycle of erosion
The cycle of erosion was a model for stream erosion and landscape development proposed by William Morris Davis in the late 19th century. Davis' Stages in the fluvial cycle of erosion published in 1909 defined a young, mature, and old sequence in the development of river valleys and the landscape...
, Wooldridge employed detailed fieldwork to identify features such as river terraces and erosion surface
Planation
Planation is a geomorphological process which creates nearly flat surfaces by fluvial , aeolian and marine processes. The process is erosional and takes millions of years, and its legacy from the tertiary period is present in many of today's landscapes. It has been studied since the 1890's but...
s, for example a presumed platform at 200 feet above modern sea level. In the later 1930s collaboration with colleague David Linton
David Leslie Linton
Professor David Leslie Linton , British geographer and geomorphologist, was professor of geography at Sheffield and Birmingham, best remembered for his work on the landscape development of south-east England with S.W.Wooldridge, and on the development of tors.-Early life and education:David Linton...
culminated in the 1939 classic Structure, Surface and Drainage of South-East England.
The 'Wooldridge and Linton Model' of landscape evolution was dependent on the identification of remnants of three widely developed erosion surfaces: a warped sub-Eocene surface; a high-level unwarped Neogene
Neogene
The Neogene is a geologic period and system in the International Commission on Stratigraphy Geologic Timescale starting 23.03 ± 0.05 million years ago and ending 2.588 million years ago...
peneplain
Peneplain
A peneplain is a low-relief plain representing the final stage of fluvial erosion during times of extended tectonic stability. The existence of peneplains, and peneplanation as a geomorphological process, is not without controversy, due to a lack of contemporary examples and uncertainty in...
and an unwarped Plio-Pleistocene marine platform. It explained both the concordant drainage pattern of the central Weald (through long-term sub-aerial erosion), and the widespread discordant features (as being related to a high-level marine shelf).
Wooldridge also collaborated with fellow King's alumnus Dudley Stamp
Laurence Dudley Stamp
Sir Dudley Stamp, CBE, DSc, D. Litt, LLD, Ekon D, DSc Nat , was professor of geography at Rangoon and London, and one of the internationally best known British geographers of the 20th century....
. Wooldridge had provided petrological input to a paper with Stamp on the Silurian
Silurian
The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...
of Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
as early as 1923 and, like Stamp, moved from geology towards human geography. Wooldridge's interest lay in relating early human settlement and land use to the physical landscape. In 1951 Stamp at LSE and Wooldridge at King's jointly edited London Essays in Geography.
Personal life
Like Dudley Stamp, Wooldridge married a King's geography student, Edith Stephens. Wooldridge was a keen golfer and cricketer, a Congregationalist lay preacher (converting later to the Church of EnglandChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
) and an amateur operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
enthusiast. He continued to work after a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
in 1954, dying in 1963.
Legacy
In 1980 the Institute of British Geographers marked the fortieth anniversary of Structure, Surface and Drainage in South-East England by the publication of The Shaping of Southern England , Evidence of folding in the Tertiary and Cretaceous rocks near South mimms and Ridge Hill. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association of London 32: 227-231.Laurence Dudley Stamp
Sir Dudley Stamp, CBE, DSc, D. Litt, LLD, Ekon D, DSc Nat , was professor of geography at Rangoon and London, and one of the internationally best known British geographers of the 20th century....
& Wooldridge, S.W. (1923), The Igneous and Associated Rocks of Llanwrtyd (Brecon), Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 79 issue.1-4, p. 16-46
David Leslie Linton
Professor David Leslie Linton , British geographer and geomorphologist, was professor of geography at Sheffield and Birmingham, best remembered for his work on the landscape development of south-east England with S.W.Wooldridge, and on the development of tors.-Early life and education:David Linton...
(1933), The Loam-Terrains of Southeast England and their relation to its Early History. Antiquity Vol. 7 No. 27, 297–310.
New Naturalist
The New Naturalist Library books are a series published by Collins in the United Kingdom, on a variety of natural history topics relevant to the British Isles...
series, London: Collins.
Awards
Wooldridge received a number of awards to fund fieldwork, including the Royal Geographical Society's Murchison AwardMurchison 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...
with David Linton
David Leslie Linton
Professor David Leslie Linton , British geographer and geomorphologist, was professor of geography at Sheffield and Birmingham, best remembered for his work on the landscape development of south-east England with S.W.Wooldridge, and on the development of tors.-Early life and education:David Linton...
in 1942. He was made CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
in 1954 in recognition of his work on the Sand and Gravel Council. In 1957 he received the Royal Geographical Society's Victoria Medal
Victoria Medal (geography)
The Victoria Medal is an award presented by the Royal Geographical Society. It is awarded "for conspicuous merit in research in geography" and has been given since 1902.-Past recipients:...
and in 1959 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a rare honour among geographers.