Meet the Membership

Number 1: Dr Trevor Ford OBE

I’m sure that few people will quibble if I begin this series of pen-portraits of prominent and long standing members with Trevor Ford, who has been a member since 1952, a mere 55 years. As far as I am aware, that is the longest stint of any of us, even our President Bob King. And not for Trevor a quiet non-contributory membership, he has served for countless years on the committee, holding both Chairman’s and Secretary’s roles, and presently is our Honorary Life Vice-President. He very rarely misses a committee meeting, or lecture, or indeed any other Section event, even at 82, although he will agree that the rigours of the field programme are now beyond him. Geology has been his life, and he has risen to become one of the doyens of our science, much respected throughout the geological world. A full resume of Trevor’s career in academic and recreational geology is clearly beyond the scope of our little newsletter, so I’ll confine myself to some highlights.

Trevor David Ford was born on April 19^th 1925 at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, but stayed in that town for only six months. At that point his father’s job as an advertising sales representative for various magazines took him to Sheffield, and it is that city, along with Leicester, that bears most association with Trevor. He did all his schooling there until the time came to choose a career. However, it must be remembered that during the critical years of decision from age 14 to 20, there was the little matter of a war going on. From leaving school until his call-up in 1944 Trevor worked in a bank in Sheffield as a ‘temporary, almost unpaid bank clerk’, but always knew that his future didn’t lie in the world of finance. He also served in his local Home Guard. But before he could consider moving on, he was called-up, initially to the Royal Air Force in Scarborough, then transferred to the Navy, but colour-blindness rapidly convinced the authorities that perhaps active service was inadvisable. However, there is always a place for everyone in the services, and Trevor eventually ended up in the catering stores. When the war ended he told his parents that he wasn’t going to return to the bank, it was time to make a career in something that interested him. His mind turned back to around the time that war broke out when he used to cycle with a friend to Speedwell Cavern at Castleton. His friend’s father was a partner in the Cavern and ran boating trips through the caverns, and somehow Trevor ended up as one of the guides. He attributes his stentorian voice to the need to bellow information at the tourists as they passed through this echoing underworld. And it was at that time that his first interest in geology was kindled, and also a lifelong love of caves and caving. So when the time came to choose his future – it would be a geologists life for Trevor.

He applied to Sheffield University to read Geology in 1946 when he was discharged from the forces, was interviewed by Fred Shotton and taken on. But before he could begin his degree (in a class of three Geology honours students!), he had to take the exam known as ‘mature matriculation’, because he never took his High School Certificate exams at school. But with that successfully negotiated Trevor began his geological career in October 1947, supported by an ex-serviceman’s grant of  £180 a year. It also helped that he was able to live at home during his degree. Fred Shotton was one of Trevor’s lecturers until his move to Birmingham, but a more noteworthy meeting was with a young lecturer fresh out of the Royal Navy, one Peter Sylvester-Bradley. Later, they were to spend their academic lives together at Leicester. ‘PS-B’ taught him palaeontology, and Trevor admits that when in due course he began his lecturer’s career at Leicester, he largely re-used his mentors notes verbatim!

Towards the end of his degree, Trevor began looking around for jobs and applied to join the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the forerunners of BP. But in the meantime he was offered a DSIR grant to continue at Sheffield to do a PhD, so never took up the position, which was just as well, because six months later, all British geologists were unceremoniously thrown out of Iran! When Professor Shotton left Sheffield at the end of Trevor’s second year, his place was taken by Lesley Moore, who had strong interests in the Coal Measures. Thus it was that in 1950 Trevor was steered towards doing his PhD in that research area, and the end result was ‘The Upper Carboniferous Rocks of the Ingleton and Stainmore coalfields’, completed in two and a half years. The latter stages were completed at Leicester after Trevor had taken up a position there in 1952. He was awarded his doctorate in summer 1953.

Trevor Ford pictured at home during the interview

Trevor’s appointment in September 1952 signalled the first stirrings of the expansion in geology teaching at Leicester, which culminated in the establishment of an independent Geology Department in 1954. Prior to Trevor’s appointment, ‘Mac’ Whittaker had been the sole lecturer in geology, but an increasing number of students requiring tuition in geology resulted in another position being sanctioned, and Trevor successfully applied. He tells me that at one point he and Mac literally spun a coin for who was to teach what when the very first honours geology student registered! The story of the growth of the Geology Department from these early days can be found in the Geology Department student magazine ‘Petros’ for 2003, told in Trevor’s own inimitable style, and I refer interested readers to that source. However, a few highlights from Trevor’s long career at Leicester (he retired in 1987) should be recorded. First has to be the discovery of the Charnwood Precambrian fossils in 1957, an incredible breakthrough, and Trevor was the first person to report them in 1958. I have told the story of the discovery of Charnia, and Trevor’s role in it, in the Autumn 2002 Charnia. He has maintained an interest through until today and naturally appeared on the programme of the Charnia Saturday Seminar on March 10^th 2007. His interest in these fossils led to a trip to the US in 1965, following the University’s decision in 1964 to introduce study leave for academics with at least six years service. For these trips, normal pay was maintained but the recipient had to find their own expenses. Dan Merriam from the University of Kansas, then a guest in the Leicester Department, arranged for Trevor to spend the summer term of 1965 in his home department. Trevor proposed to use Kansas’s central position as a base to explore the then–known Precambrian fossil localities in North America. During that stay he got the chance to see the Grand Canyon and, during a visit a few months later, to investigate a locality with alleged Precambrian brachiopods, reported by Walcott in the 1880’s, which turned out to be giant acritarchs. Trevor returned to Flagstaff in 1969, and supported the stay by teaching a summer course at Northern Arizona University. Surplus monies from that trip permitted Trevor and his family to enjoy ‘the long route home’ and visits to New Zealand, Hawaii, Fiji and also Australia, which allowed Trevor to visit the Ediacaran localities. His guide to those localities forever imprinted the experience on Trevor’s memory by driving the biggest wreck in Adelaide, a car so far gone that Trevor had to change gear from the passenger seat! On the way back from the visit, Trevor persuaded his host she was tired, so that he could take over at the wheel, and by doing so probably made it possible for us to enjoy his company today. Trevor described her as ‘the world’s worst driver, in the world’s worst car’.

Another strong memory goes back to the very early days of geology teaching at Leicester when there were only 6 students. It was 1953 and the very first field excursion, and not people to do things by halves, Mac and Trevor chose to visit the NW Highlands - in two very delapidated cars. They had reached John O’Groats, it was Sunday morning, and inevitably one of the cars developed a puncture. That was bad, but then another was discovered. Two punctures at the quietest time of the whole week in one of the quietest towns in Scotland - and nothing open. Despair was creeping in when the miracle occurred and around the corner from out of nowhere came an AA man! Their luck was certainly in that day.

One last story worth recounting, is that of the somewhat deranged woman who bombarded Trevor (and Mac) with screeds of automatic writing and other general gobbledegook. She was the sister of a lady who attended adult education classes taken by Trevor, and this sister conveyed everything back to her disturbed sibling, who then cottoned on to Trevor and Mac and developed what can only be described as a fixation. From nowhere she got the notion that ‘they’ were trying to drive Mac and Trevor in different directions, and she began a campaign of letter writing to everyone from the vice-chancellor to the minister of education, saying (presumably in gobbledegook) how strongly she disapproved! This highly strange state of affairs was only terminated by the departure of said lady to the east coast, to huge sighs of relief from Trevor and Mac.

Trevor Ford has a body of published work that must be the envy of any working scientist. Unlike many other researchers, Trevor makes a point of publishing his findings, and that policy has to date realised 410 (Trevor’s own figure) publications. That includes everything from books to papers, guides, edited works, bibliographies, reviews, popular articles, etc. His first publication, in 1950, was a short note in the Sheffield University Gazette about a caving discovery, the first significant work a synopsis of his thesis which came out in the QJGS in 1954. Picking out highlights is impossible but the body of work relating to his beloved Derbyshire and the book The Geology of the East Midlands, which came out in 1968, cannot be overlooked. Even today the latter stands as one of the main sources of reference for East Midlands geology. Trevor remembers his involvement as editor as coming from an unwise intercession during a staff meeting when he enquired who would continue editing the incomplete publication when its chief editor, Peter Sylvester-Bradley, went off on study leave. ‘Well, here you are, you do it’, came the reply! A fitting reward for a life dedicated to the dissemination of geology and cave science, both academically and popularly, came with Trevor’s award of the OBE a few years ago.

Trevor spoke widely to me about many other things, about his admiration for the management of Section C and its renaissance of the last 10 years or so, his love of caves and the vast input he has made to publications relating to that subject, the posts he has occupied in various societies and groups, including President of the EMGS, his many editorial roles over the years including a long stint of 18 years or so editing the Lit & Phil’s own Transactions, during which time he revived that ailing publication. You will be aware, then, that this article might very easily be much longer, but perhaps the best advice that I can give anyone who wants to know more, is to speak to the great man himself.

Andrew Swift