John Flett (geologist)

Sir John Smith Flett ( born June 26, 1869 in Kirkwall, Orkney, † January 26, 1947 in Ashdon, Essex ) was a British geologist.

Life

He studied natural sciences at the University of Edinburgh with a Master (MA) and a Bachelor's degree (B. Sc.) In 1892 and then medicine with a Bachelor of Medicine ( BM) and Master of Surgery ( CM) degree in 1894. He practiced briefly as a physician, but he turned ( as it increasingly deaf ) 1895 geology as an assistant to James Geikie ( 1839-1915 ) at the University of Edinburgh. He became a lecturer in petrology and taught geology at other institutions in Edinburgh as the School of Forestry and the Heriot Watt College. He examined the Old Red Sandstone of Orkney and its volcanic intrusions, for which he 1909 a D. Sc. the University of Edinburgh received. In 1901 he was Petro graph of the Geological Survey. In 1911 he became an assistant of Director of the Geological Survey of Scotland. He was fifteen years as Director of the Geological Survey, where the removal of Piccadilly to South Kensington to the newly opened Geological Museum, he organized in 1935 from 1920. In the same year he went into retirement.

As Petro graph he contributed to 30 Memoirs of the Geological Survey, particularly in the areas of Scotland and South West England. He also wrote a history of the Geological Survey.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society since 1913 and since 1900 the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1935, he received the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London. In 1917 he received the Bolitho Medal of the Geographical Society of Cornwall. In 1918 he received an OBE in 1925 and KBE.

With Tempest Anderson (1846-1913), he examined the volcanic rocks of the volcano Mount Pelée and Soufrière (Guadeloupe ) in the Caribbean.

He was married to Mary Jane Meason, whose sister 's successor as director of the Geological Survey, Edward B. Bailey (1881-1965) was married to Flett. Flett had two sons and two daughters.

Writings

• With JB Hill: Geology of the Lizard and Meneage, HM Stationery Office, 2nd edition 1946
• With Marion Newbigin: James Geikie, the man and the geologist, Edinburgh 1917
• The first hundred years of the Geological survey of Great Britain, London, HM Stationery Office, 1937