Abstract John G. Ramsay's book Folding and Fracturing of Rocks was first published in 1967. It set the research agenda for, and the approaches to, modern structural geology. It is recognized as one of the most influential texts in the subject area and was underpinned by significant research publications by the author; its weight added to by later texts and articles. John was also an enthusiastic teacher of structural geology, and many of his tutees have gone on to forge their own careers in structural geology, inspired to do so by John, his teaching and approaches. This Special Publication serves as a golden 50 year celebration of the book, and also of John's life-long work and career as an innovative scientist, inspiring mentor, excellent teacher, and great field structural geologist.

Abstract James Robert Temple Hazell, known to many as Robin Hazell, passed away in March 2017, in Bodmin, Cornwall, aged 89, after a professional life spanning close to 70 years. Robin’s main contributions addressed the exploration for and development of groundwater especially in hard rock areas. Much of this work was undertaken in the country of his first overseas posting, Nigeria, and was primarily spent in the field. He started his career in south and east Nigeria mapping groundwater resources and uncovering links between geology, baseflow and the likelihood of surface water being contaminated. In northern Nigeria he developed conceptual models for how groundwater existed in fractured rocks, and the importance of mineralogy and fractures, and used this knowledge to help site many thousands of successful boreholes. Perhaps Robin’s greatest legacy, however, was his generosity in teaching and mentoring other hydrogeologists. Robin’s last public contribution was his paper at the conference on Groundwater in Fractured Rocks, the subject of this Special Publication.

Extract Sir Archibald Geikie KCB, OM, FRS (1835–1924) was one of the most eminent geologists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Geikie was instrumental in the development of the science of geology during this period and the eminence he attained was acknowledged by the bestowal of many prestigious honours. During his distinguished career Geikie held numerous appointments, including Director-General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, President of the Geological Society, President of the British Association, Trustee of the British Museum and President of the Royal Society (the only geologist to have ever held the latter honour). He was also an accomplished writer and during his career he published over 200 scientific papers, survey memoirs, books, articles and an autobiography. In addition, he was a masterful lecturer to any level of audience and a talented artist. As the most distinguished and influential geologist of the period, he received many notable honours, including a Knighthood in 1891, Knight Commander of the Bath in 1907 and the Order of Merit in 1913. In retirement Geikie continued to work vigorously as demonstrated by his contribution to the famous Geological Survey Memoir of the North West Highland of Scotland published in 1907 which he edited, his numerous obituaries of fellow geologists, geological contributions to Encyclopaedia Britannica and other publications, as well as work on his geological collections and Royal Society history.

Abstract The family history of Sir Archibald Geikie (1835–1924) is examined with reference to his immediate family and descendants, including much previously unpublished documentary archival material preserved at the Haslemere Educational Museum. The lives of Archibald’s children are also examined. This account includes previously unpublished images of the Geikie family and gives new insights into aspects of Archibald Geikie’s character through the memories of his grandson, Derick Jacob Behrens (1917–2004). Geikie’s continued academic life after his retirement from the Geological Survey is discussed in relation to that institution.

Abstract Archibald Geikie was born on 28 December 1835 into a middle class professional family from central Edinburgh, whose principal business for at least four generations had been hairdressing. This paper looks at the life and times of an academic young boy and charts his early years and the factors that helped him to develop. He was clearly driven and certainly had an eye for the best chance. Persevering through bouts of serious illness and family monetary problems in his teenage years, he undertook several geological excursions, published reports and secured introductions to many of the significant natural scientists living in Edinburgh at the time. With the help of these contacts, and shrugging off the difficulties that appeared in his path, he achieved by the age of 20 the first step towards his chosen profession and became a geologist with the newly established Geological Survey of Scotland.

Abstract In his autobiography of 1924, Archibald Geikie (1835–1924) suppressed basic information about his family and religious beliefs. Investigation reveals a more complete picture of those aspects of Geikie’s life. He was brought up in a strongly religious family, of Congregational affiliation, which he himself followed as a young man. His father was in trade as an Edinburgh perfumer, hairdresser and wig manufacturer. Amongst several apparent family scandals were a near-murder committed by his brother (which led indirectly to Geikie’s departure from Edinburgh University), and the probable suicide of his son. Geikie’s later shift to middle-of-the-ground Anglicanism could be due to his marrying an Englishwoman, his move to England and/or the example of his patron Roderick Murchison. However, Geikie’s suppression of his earlier Congregationalism and of his family background in trade strongly suggests that the shift to Anglicanism was part of the ambitious Geikie’s career-building strategy, reinventing himself as one of the Anglicized ruling elite of the British empire. It probably also reflects the problems of establishing science as a profession in the political and religious context of the time. It may also be linked to Geikie’s apparently conservative politics. Those findings throw further light on Geikie’s approach to autobiography.

Abstract Hugh Miller, stonemason turned writer, newspaper editor and geologist, became the young Archibald Geikie’s friend and geological mentor, encouraged his first research and presentation to a learned society, and recommended him to the Geological Survey, thus laying the foundations for a career that reached the top of British science. Geikie was deeply distressed when Miller died by his own hand. He helped deal with Miller’s posthumous publications. He modelled his early writings on those of Miller and wrote attractive and much-quoted pen-portraits of Miller, which are valuable to this day, although also reflecting Geikie’s perspective in biography and historiography, now seen as flawed.

Abstract This chapter explores the interaction between Archibald Geikie and female geologists in their many different roles and within the social context of his life and time (1835–1924). The roles adopted by female geologists altered around 1875 when there was a change in the educational and legal background. Geikie’s attitude to female fieldwork and research publications changes through time too. His life is divided up into five different stages according to his ability to support and influence female geologists in their roles as researchers, lecturers, wife assistants and students. Case studies of both single and married women are explored looking at the influence and interaction they had with Archibald Geikie. They include Maria Ogilvie Gordon, Catherine Raisin, Annie Greenly, Gertrude Elles, Ethel Skeat and Ethel Wood. Geikie seems to have accepted most of the roles that women undertook and supported them wherever he could.

Abstract A lifelong friendship began in 1852 between Archibald Geikie (1835–1924) and Matthew Forster Heddle (1828–97), the most eminent Scottish mineralogist of his day. This paper follows the two men from their birth, through their education and early employment, to their first meeting in Edinburgh. It then traces the progress of their complementary, but different, careers and recounts shared events in their professional and personal lives. It describes how the astute Geikie supported the clever but unworldly Heddle through his difficulties at the University of St Andrews and helped him achieve scientific recognition. It concludes by comparing and contrasting their personalities and approach to science and defining the nature of their enduring friendship.

Abstract Sir Archibald Geikie (1835–1924), one of the towering figures in the history of British geology, maintained a long professional relationship and correspondence with pioneering American geologists of the nineteenth century, including James Dwight Dana, Clarence Dutton, Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden and Grove Karl Gilbert. Geikie made two trips to the USA. Geikie’s first trip, accompanied by his former student at Edinburgh Henry Drummond, took place in August–November 1879 for field excursions in the American ‘Far West’, including Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, where he could find ample evidence for the dominant role of fluvial erosion in the denudation of continents (a school of thought called ‘fluvialism’ or ‘erosionalism’). These geological excursions also resulted in nine articles by Geikie published during 1880–82 as well as a large number of landscape paintings and sketches now preserved at the Haslemere Educational Museum in England. Geikie’s second trip from April to May 1897 was due to an invitation to deliver a series of lectures on ‘The Founders of Geology’ at Johns Hopkins University; these lectures became the basis for his classic book of the same title. Geikie kept an active interest in geological mapping and discoveries in the USA, as evident from his numerous references to American geology in his 1882 Text-book of Geology . Geikie’s American connections demonstrate that geology, although primarily a field-based regional science, did not evolve in isolation in various countries during the nineteenth century, but that there was lively exchange and synergy in geological research and findings among geologists working in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Abstract The relationship between Sir Archibald Geikie, his publisher Alexander Macmillan and Macmillan & Co began when Archibald was a young man of 23 and continued until his death in 1924. Correspondence and other sources reveal the development of an intimate relationship with Alexander, as well as others such as Norman Lockyer, editor of Nature from 1869 and responsible for Macmillan’s science books. Archibald’s relationship with Alexander was of mutual benefit and supportive, although this study shows that this was not without difficulties and some disagreement. It was a professional relationship, with both men wanting the best for their publications, but also a personal relationship as Alexander welcomed Archibald into his home. Through Alexander, Archibald widened his circle of acquaintances and met his wife, Anna Maria Alice Gabrielle Pignatel, and became linked in marriage when Alexander married her sister, Jeanne Barbe Emma. Through Macmillan’s publications, Archibald gained an international audience as a communicator, pioneer historian of science and a successful writer of popular and readable textbooks.