Abstract The petrographer, 1 mineralogist and structural petrologist, 2 Frank Coles Phillips (Fig. 1.1 ) was born on 19 March 1902, at 19 Lipson Avenue, Plymouth, Devon, the youngest of the three children of Nicholas Phillips, an Inland Revenue officer, and his wife Kate Phillips (neé Salmon). He had an older brother, Richard Salmon ( b. 1898) and sister Dorothy Kate ( b. 1899). He never liked his first name and subsequently preferred to be called either Coles, a family name (his father's mother was a Coles) or Phil, depending on how well one knew him. The printed labels which identified his many microscope slides of rock thin-sections 3 bore the name ‘F. Coles Phillips’. He was a thin, rather gaunt figure, who began to go prematurely bald at the age of 28. In consequence, he customarily wore a hat in the field, at first favouring a trilby and later a flat cap. In his early years he smoked a pipe, but this gradually gave way to cigarettes, or the occasional cigar, interspersed by non-smoking gaps which could last a year. One of nature's gentlemen, he inspired a great deal of warmth and affection in all students, and everyone always spoke very highly of him, as both a teacher and a person. However, a colleague from Phillips’ time on the staff of the Department of Mineralogy at Cambridge in the 1930s, the crystallographer Robert C. Evans ( b. 1909), recalls (pers. comm. 1999) that while in those days Phillips was courteous to his colleagues, he was never warm, and could appear to be somewhat aloof. 4

Abstract Following a short time at Headland College, Plymouth, in May 1910, Phillips (then aged 8 years 2 months and living at 2 Woodford Villas, Plymouth) joined Plymouth College as a dayboy, a year after his older brother was admitted. It is thought very probable that during his ten years at the school Phillips was greatly influenced by one of the masters, Joseph Thompson (1859-1922). 8 School records (F. J. Jeffery, pers. comm. 1997) show that Phillips’ career at this time was marked by outstanding academic success. He was awarded the annual Form Prize each year from 1911 to 1916. This was followed by Form Prizes for German, mathematics, natural science and geography (1917); English (1918); French and natural science (1919); French (1920); the Brown Prize for mathematics (1918 and 1920); and the Murch Memorial Prize for natural science (1918-1920); and, in November 1918, he obtained credits in English, French, German, elementary and additional maths, physics and chemistry in the Oxford and Cambridge School Certificate. Despite this daunting record, his school years were not simply devoted to scholastic achievement. In the Natural History Society he was curator of botany in the school museum (1916) and, following the amalgamation of the Natural History Society and the Science Library to form the Natural Science Society in 1916, he became its librarian and treasurer (1917-1920). He also read papers to the Society on: ‘Magnetism’, ‘The microscope’ and ‘Petrol motors’ (1916); ‘Electrical transmission of the voice’ and ‘Chemistry and the camera’ (1917); ‘The origin and manufacture of paper’ (1919); and ‘How the coin of our realm is made’ (1920).

Abstract Phillips entered Corpus Christi College (CCC), Cambridge, 14 as an Exhibitioner in September 1920. The following year, he obtained a first class in the Mathematical Tripos, Part I, and was awarded the Manners Scholarship. In 1922 he was awarded a Foundation Scholarship (at CCC) and the Bishop Green Cup, and was appointed to the position of Temporary Demonstrator in Petrology at the Sedgwick Museum, under the supervision of Alfred Harker (1859-1939; FRS, 1902), Reader in Petrology. Phillips was also elected to membership of the Geologists’ Association in May 1922. The following year he gained his BA, obtaining a first class in Part I of the Natural Sciences Tripos (geology, mineralogy, chemistry and physics). He was again awarded the Bishop Green Cup and, in addition, the Wiltshire Prize for Geology with Mineralogy. 15 He subsequently graduated with a first class in Part II (geology) of the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1924, and was awarded the Cowell Scholarship (CCC). The following year Phillips began the research for his PhD dissertation, The Geology of the Shetland Islands, with Special Reference to the Petrology of the Igneous Rocks ( Phillips 1927 a ), under the supervision of Harker with ‘assistance’ from Cecil Edgar Tilley (1894-1973; FRS, 1938), who was at that time University Demonstrator in Petrology. Phillips was also appointed Student Demonstrator in Mineralogy (1925-1928), under the supervision of the Professor of Mineralogy, Arthur Hutchinson (1866-1937; FRS, 1922) 16 with Robert Heron Rastall (1871-1950) and Thomas Crawford Phemister (1902-1982) as his fellow demonstrators.

Abstract Exactly what first attracted Phillips’ attention to the new science ( Sander 1930 ) which became known as petrofabrics 97 ( Sander 1934 ) or structural petrology 98 in the English-language literature is not known, but Phillips’ interest in this topic probably began during the course of his ‘Green Bed’ study. Petrofabrics is concerned with measuring the three-dimensional geographical orientation of mineral grains in rocks, primarily in order to deduce the directions of the tectonic forces responsible for making any preferred orientations detected. It had long been appreciated, from field and laboratory studies on rocks (and also from metallurgical studies), that rocks deform under tectonic forces by recrystallization of existing minerals, chemical reactions producing new minerals, and by rotation of the mineral grains. In combination, these three processes construct in the rock a new texture or fabric , which reflects the tectonism that produced it. In order to determine the spatial orientation of this fabric correctly, it is therefore necessary to collect rock samples which are carefully orientated geographically. This is achieved in each case by making suitable marks on the surface of the rocks, defining the geographical and spatial orientation of each specimen, before it is removed from the outcrop. 99 This enables the orientation in the field to be precisely transferred right through to the final thin-section of the rock.

Abstract The Moine rocks, or ‘Moines’ as Johnstone & Mykura (1989) and many others colloquially call the formal Moine Supergroup ( Gibbons & Harris 1994 ), are a thick succession of metamorphosed sedimentary rocks, mainly psammites 126 and semi-pelites, 127 which occupy the largest part of the Northern Highlands of Scotland (Fig. 5.1 ). The metamorphic grade is mostly amphibolite fades 128 with widespread garnet- to sillimanite-zone rocks, some migmatites 129 and some low-grade greenschist facies 130 rocks, especially in the west where the metamorphic grade declines. Although not obvious, the Moine succession rests unconformably 131 on the Lewisian rocks of the Precambrian basement. 132 The Moine metasediments generally lack distinctive sedimentary lithologies or bands which can be traced for substantial distances. Consequently, unravelling the internal structure of the Moine has proved to be exceptionally difficult and it is still not complete because of its complexity, the generally uniform lithology and the varied degree of exposure, which ranges from excellent to abysmal. The term Moine itself, which derives from ‘a'Mhoine’, meaning ‘the peat bog’ (in North Sutherland; Green 1935 , p. lxiv), is expressive of the last difficulty. The history of the understanding of the geology of the Moine Supergroup up to the publication of the great memoir on the geology of the NW Highlands by Charles Thomas Clough (1852-1916), William Gunn (1837-1902), Lionel Wordsworth Hinxman (1855-1936), John Home (1848-1928) and Benjamin Neeve Peach (1824-1926) ( Peach et al. 1907 ) has been fully documented in gripping detail by Oldroyd (1990) .

Abstract In March 1936, Phillips began fieldwork for his next project, ‘A fabric study of some Moine Schists and associated rocks’ ( Phillips 1937 b ). This was based on a collection of ‘about 200 orientated specimens, 144 with accompanying field data’ from an area lying mainly north of Glen Moriston and NW of Glen Mor (Glenmore-nan-Albin), the 97 km long depression which forms the ‘Great Glen’ of Scotland (Fig. 5.2 ). He completed the work amazingly quickly - in less than a year, he submitted the manuscript to the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. It was sent to Read (who was by then George Herdman Professor of Geology at the University of Liverpool, following his appointment in 1931) for review on 17 March 1937. It is almost certain that this manuscript also formed the basis for Phillips’ Sedgwick Prize submission. It was announced in the University Reporter of 2 March 1937 (G. Waller, pers. comm. 1998), that the prize had been jointly awarded to Phillips and to the geophysicist (Sir) Edward Crisp Bullard (1907-1980). 145 Sander had already made a plea that ‘there ought not to be microtectonists and megatectonists working independently of each other, but rather one group of workers investigating the correlations between process in large and small units’ ( Sander 1934 , p. 37). For his part, Phillips (1937 b , p. 584) stated that ‘any attempt to make fabric studies a substitute for fieldwork, rather than a valuable auxiliary in the course of the subsequent work in the laboratory, is thoroughly deplored’.

Abstract The University of Liverpool advertised the position of the George Herdman Chair of Geology in 1946, seven years after Read had left in 1939 to become head of department at Imperial College, London. Twelve applications were received. Phillips’ referees were the geologist Tressilian Charles Nicholas (1888-1989) and O. T. Jones. Nicholas is best known as an extraordinarily successful Senior Bursar (1929-1956) of Trinity College, Cambridge. Having retired from lecturing in 1936 (M. A. A. 1990) he was elected Chairman of the Faculty of Geography and Geology. He had taught Phillips as an undergraduate, had seen the commencement of his teaching and research, and appreciated his ‘public-spirited, hard-working and excellent’ administrative abilities, when Phillips worked under him as Secretary to the Faculty Board. Nicholas wrote very positively (letter of 27 August 1946, quoted in Anon. 1946), to say that he had every confidence that Phillips would make a very good head of department who could be expected to establish a school of research workers in new fields, such as that of petrofabrics. This view was independently, and equally strongly, supported by Jones (letter of 11 August 1946, quoted in Anon. 1946 ) who emphasized Phillips’ acknowledged role as the leading British expert on petrofabric methods. Following consultation with the external advisers (Tilley and Read), a shortlist of four candidates was drawn up. Interviews (at which the external advisers were present) were held on 17 September 1946.

Abstract At the invitation of Professor Walter Frederick Whittard (1902-1966; FRS, 1957), palaeontologist, stratigrapher, and a formidable head of department, Phillips came to the Department of Geology at the University of Bristol in 1948, as Lecturer in Geology. D. T. Donovan (pers. comm. 2000) recalls being told by Whittard that he believed that Phillips’ distinction merited a readership, but that as the university did not (then, at least) appoint directly to readerships, Phillips was offered the position of lecturer on the understanding that he would be promoted to Reader as soon as possible. 190 The family, who were keen on caravanning, initially lived in the family caravan for a few months until permanent accommodation could be found. They then moved to Westaway, 89 Coombe Lane, Bristol, and this was to remain their home until Phillips retired from the department, his large Armstrong-Siddeley car being used less and less as traffic congestion increased. When Phillips arrived at Bristol he was known internationally for his textbook on crystallography and was an expert on optical mineralogy, but while there he never taught either subject, being responsible for the teaching of petrology. This very curious situation (quite inexplicable to those outside the department) arose because when Phillips arrived in Bristol, in his customary polite manner he asked Igor Serge Loupekine (1920-1993), who had been teaching mineralogy, crystallography and petrology in the department since his graduation in 1943 ( Savage 1993 ), what he wished to retain. Loupekine chose the mineralogy and crystallography, and so Phillips taught the petrology.

Abstract It may well have been Kleeman who suggested that Phillips should visit Australia to repeat his ‘Vacation School in Structural Petrology’ at the University of Adelaide (Fig. 9.1 ), and doubtless the British Council (which eventually sponsored the July-October 1953 visit) would have encouraged him to give lectures elsewhere. For instance, the University of Western Australia in Perth would have been an obvious place to visit, in view of Phillips’ pre-war acquaintance with Rex Prider ( ft. 1938-1985) at Cambridge (Fig. 6.6 ), which may have been renewed during Prider's year of study-leave in Britain and Europe in 1952-1953. Leaving on 2 July 1953, Phillips travelled on the liner Strath-naver via Gibraltar, Port Said and the Gulf of Suez to the Red Sea, Aden, Bombay and Colombo, 220 and arrived at Fremantle on 28 July. 221 During his voyage, he read a book on Australia (Taylor 1943), and began ‘serious work’. Although Phillips (1953 b , p. 4) mentions ‘reading Sander’ (presumably, Sander 1948 , 1950 ) on the ship, he may also have been working on the manuscript for his forthcoming book The Use of Stereographic Projection in Structural Geology (Phillips 1954b). 222 During his week in Nedlands, near Perth, where the University of Western Australia is located, Phillips was hosted by his former Cambridge colleague Prider, who had been appointed to the Chair of Geology at the University in 1949.

Abstract During World War II, and immediately thereafter, the study of Moine geology languished. After Sutton and Watson had completed their PhD studies of the Lewisian foreland under Read ( Sutton & Watson 1951 ), they remained at Imperial College and turned their attention to the still vexed question of the exact relationship between the Moine metasediments and the Lewisian-type rocks enclosed within them. Were the Lewisian-type rocks in inliers underlying unconformable Moine metasediments, or were they part of the Moine succession, or were they thrust-slices into it? The Geological Survey and many others believed the views of Peach et al. (1907) that the Lewisian rocks were in inliers, whereas Read (1934b) , as we have seen, took the opposite view. With their recent familiarity with the Lewisian complex, Sutton and Watson were well qualified to examine the problem. Moreover, the use of cross-bedding, which occurs in the Moine metasediments ( Wilson et al. 1953 ), to indicate stratigraphic way-up in metasedimentary successions, was by now established. This tool was able to show way-up direction even in tightly folded Moine rocks. Under Read at Imperial College, for the first time in British university geological research, teams of researchers, staff, research students and research fellows systematically examined areas of regional geology. One team, under Read and Pitcher (to 1955), concentrated on the geology of Donegal and the Donegal granite (1947-1963), 259 while another, initiated by Sutton and Watson, examined the Moine succession.

Abstract The above-noted developments in the 1950s and 1960s in Moine geology show the growing recognition of the importance of combining lithological mapping with shrewd and careful observations in the field of folds, lineations and schistosities in order to unravel the geometrical history of deformed rocks. The increase in the field data collected, dips and strikes of bedding, cleavage or schistosity and the axial planes of folds, plunge amounts and geographical directions of folds and lineations (Fig. 11.1 ) led to an explosion of data and the neéd to be able to manipulate, display and synthesize such data at a time before computers were generally available ( Howarth 1999 ). The process was enormously facilitated by the gradual extension of the use of the stereographic projection from crystallography (in which, as has been seen, upper hemisphere plotting is used), to structural geology (in which lower hemisphere plotting is conventional, presumably because folds and lineations are normally considered in their down-plunge attitudes, not the reverse). There is no doubt that the widespread use of the stereogram in structural geology in Britain was promoted, more than any other factor ( Sutton 1960 b ), by the publication of Phillips’ (1954 b ) textbook The Use of Stereographic Projection in Structural Geology , following his return from Australia. In the preface, Phillips paid tribute to the usefulness of Cotton & Garretty's (1945) report. 268 Phillips’ chapter entitled ‘Tectonic synthesis in stereographic (and related) projection’, illustrated how the Lambert equal-area projection (Fig. 4.4 ) could be applied to summarize the orientation of joints, lineation and planes of schistosity, using examples from the schists of Start Point, Devon (Fig. 11.2 ) and the Moine schists.