Abstract After the drought of 1933–1934 the Geological Survey became responsible, under the Inland Water Survey, for collecting and collating data on groundwater. In 1935 a Water Unit was formed for this purpose. Following the Water Act of 1945, the Survey advised the Government on aspects of the Act relating to groundwater. The Act led to the introduction of quantitative hydrogeology in England and Wales. The groundwater resources of the main aquifers were assessed, well hydraulic theory was applied to British aquifers, and geophysical techniques and new instrumentation introduced.

Abstract Jack Ineson will always be associated with introducing quantitative methods to British hydrogeology. A geologist with a sound knowledge of mathematics and statistics, unusual for the time, he seized the opportunity in 1948 to apply to British aquifers the burgeoning theory of well hydraulics initiated by Theis. Ineson’s career was mainly spent with the Geological Survey of Great Britain, now the British Geological Survey, but in the period 1965–1970 as Chief Geologist of the Water Resources Board. It was, however, a relatively short career with the start postponed by the Second World War and tragically truncated in June 1970 as a direct consequence of his experiences in the war.

Abstract Norman S. Boulton ( Fig. 1 ) was a civil engineer who achieved international recognition for his work on groundwater hydraulics. He recognized that in unconfined aquifers water is released from storage by drainage under gravity from the pore-spaces in the cone of depression as it expands. This ‘delayed yield’ gave a characteristic S-shape to the log-log, time-drawdown graph of water levels in an observation well near a pumping well. Boulton developed a mathematical solution that reproduced the three segments of the curve. Most of his career was spent in academia mainly at the University of Sheffield where he was Professor of Civil Engineering between 1955 and 1964. His work embraced studies of structural engineering and soil mechanics as well as groundwater flow.

Abstract The Water Resources Board was formed in 1964, an outcome of the Water Resources Act of 1963. Its remit was to advise the Government and the new river authorities on ‘the proper use of water resources in England and Wales’. It made three major regional studies of water resources and, in 1973, advocated a national water strategy. The Water Resources Board was disbanded in 1974 following the reorganization of the water industry under the Water Act of 1973 which created the regional water authorities. In the 1970s, a decline in the rate of population growth together with an economic recession reduced the demand for water and the Board’s proposals were not fully implemented. After 1974 the Central Water Planning Unit continued the Water Resources Board’s role until it too was disbanded in 1979.