Wallace Spencer Pitcher (1919-2004): an Appreciation Bernard Elgey Leake, FRSE

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 97, vii-xii, 2008 (for 2006) Wallace Spencer Pitcher (1919-2004): an appreciation Bernard Elgey Leake, FRSE Wallace Pitcher, (or Wally, as he was generally known), who dedicated analyst in the Department, Dr A. W. Groves, had died in the Wirral on 4 September 2004, was born in London long since retired. The geochemical laboratory, which was on 3 March 1919, and became the leading and most dis not used during the Second World War, had become a tinguished British expert on granites and their emplacement cleaners' store and was only revived in 1948 by Donald Bowes mechanisms, the geology of Donegal and the Donegal granites (later FRSE) in order to carry out rock analyses for his PhD and, with John Cobbing, the geology of the Peruvian batho- project. lith. He was elected an Honorary FRSE in 1993. Donegal was chosen partly because of a shrewd remark by His parents, Harry George and Irene Bertha Pitcher, lived Professor W. W. Watts of Imperial College to Read at the modestly in Acton, west London, although his father was still beginning of the granitisation controversy (which itself was in the Army when he was born. His father had joined the army partly generated by Read (1943, 1944)). But it was mainly before becoming trained and chose to stay in for about two because Robert M. Shackleton, then a lecturer in the Geology years after the First World War, as work was hard to find; Department of Imperial College and already working in Don eventually he became a plumber. His mother worked for a time egal, confirmed to Read that the mapping of the Donegal as a dressmaker but was mostly a housewife, as was usual then. Granite by the Geological Survey of Ireland in the 19th He was an only child and went to Hounslow and Bulstrode Century had revealed an apparent succession of metamorphic Schools and, at the age of 13, to Acton Technical School, rocks enclosed by, and gradually disappearing into, the (Main) where he took a matriculation course and also received a good Donegal Granite, possibly being transformed into granite. technical education. He showed an early interest in fossils, Read interviewed Wally, who had been strongly recommended collecting his first London Clay fossil by the age of ten from a by Fleet, for the post and asked Wally what research he would local excavation and, by his early twenties, he was an amateur undertake if appointed. Wally, whose main geological interest expert on the Tertiary fauna of the London Clay. was the Tertiary London Clay, replied 'Tertiary faunas' to At the age of 17 he became an apprentice assayer for George which Read's response was negative, but he suggested meta T. Holloway & Co, which gave him the training in chemical morphic and granitic rocks would be more appropriate as analysis that was partly responsible for his later first academic topics that Imperial College specialised in. In fact, Read said, appointment. Concurrently, he enrolled as a part-time student 'you could start on Monday at 9.30 am if that topic was of at Chelsea College, London, for a degree in chemistry and interest to you'. After a long pause, Wally replied affirmatively geology, which combined his main interests. However, the and was duly appointed, this being before Professors had to Second World War interrupted these studies and he entered manipulate appointing committees for even minor posts. The the army. Because he had given his profession as a 'chemist,' interview ended with Wally being briefly shown a geological this was misunderstood as a 'pharmacist' and he spent the next map of Donegal and instructed to go and see where best to five years as a medical orderly in the Royal Army Medical start mapping some of the numerous granites there. (Read Corps. He rarely spoke about this time but when he did, it was himself not yet being familiar with the ground, as most of his clearly no picnic. Early in the war he suffered a leg injury (not mapping had been carried out in Scotland whilst in the a war wound) which led to phlebitis in his left leg and later Geological Survey.) recurred, so that he worked in the Pathological Laboratory, It was again symptomatic of the time that that such an where his knowledge of chemistry and analytical techniques important decision was entrusted to a quite junior man who were useful, and this gained him promotion to a sergeant. He was also left to choose his PhD area in Donegal, albeit with the retained his interest in geology, joining the Geologists' Associ guidance and approval of Shackleton, who was nominally in ation in 1942, and leading excursions after the war around charge of the project until he left a few months later to occupy London. He was invalided out of the Army in 1944 and in the Chair of Geology in Liverpool. Read, however, was 1945, aged 26, with a grant to study full-time, he returned to Wally's supervisor. So, during the Easter break in 1948, complete his degree at Chelsea under Dr W. F. Fleet, who ran accompanied by Stella Scutt, whom Wally had married in the Geology Department virtually single-handedly. He gradu August 1947, Wally first went to Donegal with Shackleton, ated in 1947. who had a vehicle. Wally and Stella stayed in Meencorwick In 1947, Professor H. H. Read FRS of Imperial College was with the schoolmistress of Thorr school, Nora MacMonagle. seeking to fill a Demonstratorship in Geology with someone At that time conditions were quite primitive, with no tarred able to cope with teaching their somewhat boisterous and, at roads, piped water, or electricity, and transport was on foot or times, belligerent, ex-servicemen students, whilst also wanting on a borrowed bicycle. This started a major, 25-year pro someone who would work with him in studying the origin of gramme of research into the geology of Donegal and its the granites of Donegal. Read, a petrologist, was world famous numerous granites, in which dozens of researchers, mainly, but for his trenchant views on the origin of granite as being by not exclusively, from Imperial College, would become in granitisation rather than derived as a magmatic rock by volved. This programme, and the analogous major project on magma fractionation, and needed a chemical geologist to the Moine and Lewisian rocks, also initiated by Read at be able to elucidate the granitisation process. The analysis of Imperial College, were the first instances in British Universities silicate rocks was a slow and skilled job that required much of major coordinated field mapping and laboratory geological chemical practice to obtain reliable results, and the previous projects. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.126, on 27 Sep 2021 at 15:37:59, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0080456800090700 Vlll BERNARD ELGEY LEAKE Wally held the post of Demonstrator for one year (1947— increase the number of rock analyses completed per week. The 48), an Assistant Lecturership for two (1948-50), and then a equipment was speedily purchased by Imperial College (in the Lectureship in Geology at Imperial College for five years days before applying for research grants delayed progress) and (1950-55). Read was his great mentor who taught him much in 1953 (i.e. within a year) a chemist (E. L. P. Mercy) and an about research methods, whilst Shackleton's perception of the Indian geologist (R. C. Sinha) were taken on as research geology of Donegal was inspiring. Wally was a meticulous students, working under Wally, to set up and get the new teacher, very well-liked by his students, as he went to great methods working. This was the first attempt in Britain to speed trouble to prepare his lectures, practicals and field trips care up rock analysis in this way. The writer joined the team from fully; and delivered them in a rather slow methodical way so January to July 1954, on secondment from Liverpool Univer that even the poorer students could follow and make a good sity as part of his Liverpool PhD, and this was how he first met record of the salient facts. He continued his involvement with and worked under Wally. the Geologists' Association, leading field excursions and an There was initially great opposition from petrologists and interest in the geology of London and its surroundings. Most many silicate analysts to the use of these new rapid methods of important of all his near-London publications was the GA rock analysis, allegedly because of their lower accuracy, and Excursion Guide 30, The London Basin (Pitcher et al. 1958a). this initially worried Wally. But by a fortuitous coincidence, His broad geological interests were also emphasised by his Fairbairn (1951) had just published the results of an extensive joint paper on the loess of Pegwell Bay, Kent and its associated investigation into the chemical analyses of a basalt and a frost soils (Pitcher et al. 1954). His own PhD (1951), on The granite, which had both been analysed by over 20 of the migmatitic Older Granodiorite of Thorr district, Co. Donegal world's leading silicate analysts, with a deplorable spread of (Pitcher 1953a), was read to the Geological Society on 9th results that completely disproved the supposed accuracy of January 1952, together with his joint paper on the Maas traditional methods. This gave Wally the confidence to pro district (Iyengar et al. 1953). These marked the beginning of a ceed with the new methods, despite the unnerving occasional flood of papers dealing with the Donegal project and were explosion caused by the mixing of the acetylene and oxygen rapidly followed by his study, reported to the Geologists' needed for the flame photometry of the Na and K.

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