William Joscelyn Arkell | |
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| Born | (1904-06-09)9 June 1904 Highworth, Wiltshire, England |
| Died | 18 April 1958(1958-04-18) (aged 53) Cambridge, England |
| Alma mater | New College, Oxford |
| Known for | Jurassic geology |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Jurassicpalaeontology andstratigraphy |
| Institutions | |
William Joscelyn ArkellFGS,FRS[1] (9 June 1904 – 18 April 1958) was a British geologist andpalaeontologist, regarded as the leading authority on theJurassic Period during the middle part of the 20th century.[2]
Arkell was born inHighworth, Wiltshire, the youngest of a family of seven. His father, James Arkell was a partner in the prosperous family businessArkell's Brewery (which is still family owned today). His mother, Laura Jane Arkell, was an artist of noted ability.[1]
He developed a deep love of the English countryside from an early age, perhaps gained from long family summer holidays spent atSwanage, Dorset. He was later educated atWellington College in Berkshire, where his ability inNatural History was recognised and he was able to devote significant time to develop his knowledge of this subject. He was a regular prize winner for his natural history essays, one of which was a treatise on the Dorset Robber Flies (Asilidae). He privately published a set of poems,Seven Poems, that reflected his love of nature and the outdoors.[1]
In October 1922, at the second attempt (after failing theLatin examination), Arkell was admitted toNew College, Oxford. He had initially intended to readentomology but despite being tutored by the greatJulian Huxley, he decided that his career lay in geology andpalaeontology. In 1925 he graduated withFirst Class Honours in geology. He remained at theUniversity of Oxford after being awarded aBurdett-Coutts research scholarship. His research topic involved thetaxonomy of thebivalves from theUpper JurassicCorallian beds of England. For this and other papers on the Jurassic of Southern England he was awarded aD Phil in 1928.[1]
Whilst undertaking his doctoral research, Arkell spent four winter seasons (1926–1930) alongsideK. S. Sandford, investigating evidence ofPalaeolithic human remains in theNile valley of Egypt in association with theUniversity of Chicago. Four notablemonographs, authored jointly with Sandford and published by Chicago'sOriental Institute were the result of this work.[1]
Arkell was awarded a lectureship in geology atNew College, Oxford in 1927, and was made a senior research fellow of that college in 1929. With few teaching or administrative duties, he was able to devote almost all his time to research. This culminated with the publication in 1933 ofThe Jurassic System of Great Britain, a 681-page work which critically examined and consolidated all previous work on the Jurassic, including the formations described by the pioneer of British geology,William Smith, in the 19th century. It established Arkell (at age 29) as an authority on the Jurassic.[1]
He also published extensively on the Upper Jurassic reef deposits (theCoral Rag) of England. He was an expert on the use of Jurassiclimestones as building materials, and his research into the many different types of limestone used in the buildings ofOxford would result in publication of a book in 1947. The often obscure terminology used byminers andquarrymen was clarified by his dictionary of rock terms (1953). Arkell was interested in thetectonic history of Southern England, particularly with reference to the highly folded beds of theIsle of Purbeck. He contributed to reports published by theBritish Geological Survey, especially around the area ofWeymouth and Portland.[1]
The Second World War interrupted his research in 1941, and Arkell worked for theMinistry of Transport in London while bombing of that city was at its most intense. In 1943 he became seriously ill, spending five months in hospital after apneumothorax operation.[1]
After demobilisation at the end of the war, Arkell accepted a senior research fellowship atTrinity College, Cambridge, holding an office at theSedgwick Museum. In this time Arkell began to work on the use ofammonites as zone fossils in Jurassic stratigraphy and became the leading expert on this specialist area. He was inundated with fossils for identification, particularly from oil companies. As a consequence, he travelled widely in the Middle East, examining many Jurassic exposures from this area.[1]
Arkell then consolidated his knowledge of the Jurassic and publishedJurassic Geology of the World in 1956.[3] The large, detailed volume to this day remains a classic and influential text.
Arkell married Ruby Percival in 1929 and bought a large house atCumnor, near Oxford, before moving to Cambridge in 1949. They had three sons, born between 1932 and 1937. They also established a holiday home atRingstead Bay in Dorset. Through his link with the family brewery business, Arkell was independently wealthy.
Arkell had a large frame and height – he was 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall – but was never a well man. In the autumn of 1956 he suffered a severe stroke which left him partially paralysed and withdouble vision; this was a detriment to his Sunday hobby of watercolour painting. Despite this his determination to continue his work and correspondence at theUniversity of Cambridge continued. He suffered a second stroke on 18 April 1958 and died several hours later.[1]
Arkell received aD Sc from the University of Oxford in 1934. In 1944 he received theMary Clark Thompson Medal from theUnited States National Academy of Sciences.[4] He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1947. Arkell was awarded theLyell Medal by theGeological Society of London in 1949, and theLeopold von Buch medal of the German Geological Society in 1953.
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