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Gordon Valentine Manley and His Contribution to the Study of Climate Change Endfield, Georgina; Veale, Lucy; Hall, Alexander University of Birmingham Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change Endfield, Georgina; Veale, Lucy; Hall, Alexander DOI: 10.1002/wcc.334 License: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY) Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Citation for published version (Harvard): Endfield, G, Veale, L & Hall, A 2015, 'Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work', Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 287- 299. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.334 Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal General rights Unless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or the copyright holders. The express permission of the copyright holder must be obtained for any use of this material other than for purposes permitted by law. •Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. •Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. •User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of ‘fair dealing’ under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (?) •Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain. Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down policy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive. If you believe that this is the case for this document, please contact [email protected] providing details and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate. Download date: 27. Sep. 2021 Advanced Review Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work Georgina H. Endfield,∗ Lucy Veale and Alexander Hall British climatologist and geographer, Gordon Manley (1902–1980), is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on climate variability in the UK, for establishing the Central England Temperature series and, for his pivotal role in demonstrating the powerful relationship between climate, weather, and culture in post-World War II Britain. Yet Manley made many contributions, both professional and popular, to climate change debates in the twentieth century, where climate change is broadly understood to be changes over a range of temporal and spatial scales rather than anthropogenic warming per se. This review first establishes how Manley’s work, including that on snow and ice, was influenced by key figures in debates over climatic amelioration around the North Atlantic between 1920s and 1950s. His research exploring historical climate variability in the UK using documentary sources is then discussed. His perspectives on the relationship between climate changes and cultural history are reviewed, paying particular attention to his interpretation of this relationship as it played out in the UK. Throughout, the review aims to show Manley to be a fieldworker and an empiricist and reveals how he remained committed to rigorous scientific investigation despite changing trends within his academic discipline. © 2015 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Howtocitethisarticle: WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:287–299. doi: 10.1002/wcc.334 n April 19, 1944, British meteorologist Gordon ‘varying distribution of weather itself- the study of cli- OManley delivered the Royal Meteorological Soci- matic change.’1 The content of his lecture provides an ety’s G.J. Symons Memorial Lecture. Established in opportunistic lens through which to view key develop- 1926 in memory of George Symons, a leading mem- ments, debates, and anxieties within climate research ber of the Society from the 1860s, these lectures were at the time. intended to provide surveys of recent developments Manley focused on a set of sub themes: climate within meteorology and affiliated subjects. Manley changes and the course of history, the interpretation of used this opportunity to present a synthesis of the post-glacial and historical changes in climate, recent work in Scandinavia and glacial variations around the ∗Correspondence to: [email protected] Norwegian Sea and the suggested causes of these vari- School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK ations. Throughout the lecture, Manley pointed out the uncertainties, explained complexities and high- Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest lighted fruitful areas for further field based enquiry, for this article. particularly in the UK. He alerted his audience to ‘the Volume 6, May/June 2015 287 © 2015 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Advanced Review wires.wiley.com/climatechange tremendous variety of engrossing problems awaiting available from 1772.9 The CET is the longest con- us after the war’ (Ref 1, p. 217). Most significantly, he tinuous instrumental surface temperature series avail- identified several areas of research into climate change able and is based directly on thermometer readings at a range of temporal scales, to which he had made, drawn from various sites forming an approximately or was to make, major contributions. Here, we revisit triangular area, enclosed by Bristol, Lancashire, and some of these contributions and in doing so, highlight London. Now maintained and updated by the Hadley the work of one of ‘the best known, most prolific and Centre,10 the CET is used to calibrate proxy records most expert on the climate of Britain of his generation’ of climatic change3 and represents the most studied (Ref 2, p. 87). climate record in the world.11 While at Durham, Manley also maintained his own field stations, first at Moor House, in a game- BACKGROUND keeper’s cottage on the exposed moorlands of Upper Teesdale at 1840 ft, and later at nearby Great Dun Gordon Valentine Manley (1902–1980), President Fell, on the cusp of one of the bleakest summits in of the Royal Meteorological Society, 1945–1946, the Northern Pennines. He was a pioneer of such founder of its ‘house’ journal, Weather, and Honorary upland weather studies, and his run of personally Fellow of the Society (from 1976), was born on the collected data helped to establish Great Dun Fell as Isle of Man but brought up in Blackburn, Lancashire. a leading weather station.12,13 Manley held partic- He completed his first undergraduate Bachelor’s [B.Sc. ular affection for the Pennines throughout his life. (Hons.)] degree in Engineering at the University of This was an area in which he regularly walked alone, Manchester and went on to study for a Bachelor with his students, or with his wife Audrey Fairfax of Arts in Geography at Cambridge, in the 1920s. Robinson whom he married in 1930. Manley main- At Cambridge he studied under Frank Debenham, tained detailed commentaries on the walks he had Professor of Geography (1930–1949) and geologist on undertaken and there remain four notebooks, now the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910–1913 with held in the Gordon Manley papers in the Department Captain Robert F. Scott.3 Debenham was influential of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cambridge in nurturing in Manley a long standing interest in University, recording these walks and associated field the study of polar regions and these formative years and weather observations from his teenage years into at Cambridge provided a training in science ‘with a the 1930s.14 practical bent and in endeavour far beyond the usual In 1939, after 11 years at Durham, and having frontier’ (Ref 4, p. 220). completed, as an external candidate, a Master of Graduating with a double first in Geography, Science in the Faculty of Science at the University of Manley spent a year working at the Meteorologi- Manchester the previous year, Manley returned to cal Office before participating in an expedition to Cambridge as a demonstrator (supporting practical Northeast Greenland in 1926, under Sir James Mann and laboratory-based teaching) and later as a lec- Wordie. He contributed to the appendices for the turer. Here he published over 30 papers, a number expedition reports and also published his own paper of which are discussed in this review. He then moved on some of the findings in the Danish series Med- to Bedford College, London, where he was Profes- delelser om Grønland in 1932.5 Manley then accepted sor of Geography from 1948 to 1964.3 During this an assistant lecturing post at Birmingham University time, he was awarded a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) and then moved to Durham where he was appointed from the University of Manchester in 1958. This is in May 1928 to lead the new Geography degree a higher doctorate conferred on a member of the program.4 university with a proven track record of producing At Durham, Manley developed his interest in internationally recognized scholarship. Manley would the collection and analysis of long-term instrumen- in fact receive another (honorary) D.Sc., awarded by tal weather records for the UK, and his associated Durham University in 1979. investigations of the people who created them. This At the age of 62, Manley established a new work was shaped by his appointment as curator of Department of Environmental Studies at Lancaster the Durham Observatory between 1931 and 1937 6 University.
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