Walter Brian Harland (22 March 1917 – 1 November 2003) was a British geologist at the Department of Geology, later University of Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences, England, from 1948 to 2003. He was a leading figure in geological exploration and research in Svalbard, organising over 40 Cambridge Spitsbergen Expeditions (CSE) and in 1975 founded the Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme (CASP) as a research institute to continue this work. He was first secretary of the International Geological Correlation Programme from 1969 until UNESCO could take over in 1972, and was a driving force in setting criteria and standards in stratigraphy and producing 4 editions of the geological time scale in 1964, 1971, 1982 and 1989. He also edited the international Geological Magazine for 30 years. In 1968, he was honoured with the Royal Geographical Society Gold Medal for Arctic exploration and research.
Background Early life and education Walter Brian Harland was born 22 March 1917 in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the son of Walter Ernest Harland (1880-1947), auctioneer and estate agent, and his wife, Alice Marian, née Whitfield (1883-1954). He grew up exploring many of the geological features of Yorkshire, and was taught mapping at primary school. As an 11 year old at the Downs School, Colwall, later The Downs Malvern he carried out a field study and geologically mapped the Malvern Hills.Harland, W.B. ′The Geology of the Malvern Hills, lab and field notes, 1928-1931′ unpublished records When he was thirteen and at Bootham SchoolOxford Dictionary of National Biography in York he discovered a near complete skeleton of Steneosaurus Brevior, an 11 foot long crocodile fossilized in the Jurassic rocks of the North Yorkshire coast, which was removed to the Natural History Museum, London.Schoolboy captures a crocodile, 7th May 1931, Daily Mail, Archives In 1935 he went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated with double first-class honours in natural sciences (geology) in 1938.
Personal life Brian became a Quaker when he was an undergraduate, starting a lifelong interest in the relationship between religion, philosophy, and science. He married Elisabeth Lewis in 1942 and they had one son and three daughters. Brian Harland died in Cambridge 1 November 2003.
Academic career After graduating, he started on a PhD at Cambridge to investigate the deep structure of eastern England, using explosion seismology;Bullard, E.C., Gaskell, T.F., Harland, W.B., and Kerr-Grant, C., 1940. ′Seismic investigations on the Palaeozoic floor of East England′. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (Series A) 239, 29-94 this ended with the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1946 he returned to the Department of Geology, later University of Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences, England, as Demonstrator till 1948. He was Lecturer from 1948-66, Reader in Tectonic Geology from 1966–84 and Emeritus Reader in Tectonic Geology from 1984 to 2003. He was a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge from 1950–84 and Life Fellow from 1984-2003.
Conscientious objection/West China Harland was a conscientious objector during the Second World War. After working on a farm near Scarborough, he spent 1942 to 1946 with the Friends Service Council in West China Union University, Chengdu, later Chengdu University of Technology, where he ran a Department of Geology. During this time, he spent two summers at the Bailie School in Shandan, Northwest China, advising the industrial co-operative there on natural resources.Shandan Bailie School, ′Geology, General Report 1947′. Shanghai, China. pp32-33. unpublished records After the thaw in relations with China, following the Cultural Revolution, he renewed his relationship with what had become Chengdu University of Technology, and became a visiting professor.
Friendship with Joseph Needham He maintained a lifelong friendship with Joseph Needham, from his time as a student at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge when he invited the biochemist (already a college Fellow of 11 years standing) to address the College's Natural Science Club. They met again in China during 1942 to 1946 when they were both based in Sechwan, now known as Sichuan.
After the war they both returned to Cambridge where Needham became the leading scholar of the history of Chinese science. Harland became a founder trustee of the Needham Research Institute and "gave" Needham's eulogy at his memorial service.Harland, W.B. 1995. ′Obituaries, Joseph Needham, address at memorial service′ The Caian pp107-110
Work
Fieldwork Field education was of utmost importance to Harland who saw it as a vital part of a university education in geological sciences. He was particularly associated with training first year students in the varied geology of the Isle of Arran. He pioneered the incorporation of fieldwork as a regular part of the Cambridge curriculum: and from 1952 for more than 30 years, led some 2000 students, on Arran fieldtrips. Here young scientists were trained to look at rocks in situ and make simple observations, and then to argue about what they saw ignoring all preconceptions. Before this time field trips had been run by the Sedgwick Club, an undergraduate society.Harper, E. and Woods, Sam. 2004 ′Obituaries of Caius Fellows, Harland, W.B′ The Caian, pp240 On Cambridge Spitsbergen Expeditions well over 300 members of University of Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences had further training in field skills: making empirical observations and collecting specimens and data.
Arctic Geology and Cambridge Spitsbergen Expeditions Harland was continuously involved with Arctic geological exploration and research. He first went to Spitsbergen in 1938 as part of a six-man geographical expedition.Harland, W.B. 1942. ′Geological Notes on the Stubendorf Mountains, West Spitsbergen.′Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Section B. Biology, 61(2), pp 119-129. Spitsbergen is the largest and most mountainous island of the Norwegian high arctic archipelago known as Svalbard. He saw the geological potential of Svalbard for both research and educational work with its superb rock exposures showing a more or less complete stratigraphic succession from late Precambrian to the Palaeogene.
From 1948 he developed and directed the Cambridge Spitsbergen Expeditions (CSE) from the Cambridge University Department of Geology (later, the Department of Earth Sciences). The CSE became the Cambridge Svalbard Exploration research group and later developed into the Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme, CASP. There were forty three summer seasons of expeditionary fieldwork, of which he led twenty nine. More than 300 undergraduates and about fifty graduate collaborators were involved over the years. Svalbard proved an excellent training ground for future geologists producing around thirty PhD theses and over three hundred scientific papers. Many senior figures in academia, industry and polar work gained early field experience on these expeditions.
Harland's work in the Arctic is commemorated by Harland Huset, the UK's Arctic Research Station located in Ny-Ålesund. The ice field ′Harlandisen′ in Spitsbergen is also named in his honour. His wife Elisabeth accompanied him on 13 expeditions and both were awarded the polar medal.Poulsom, N.W., and Myres, J.A.L., 2000. ′British Polar Exploration and Research: A Historical and Medallic Record with Biographies, 1818-1999′ Savannah Publications, London.
Survey field work and mapping Cambridge Spitsbergen Expeditions carried out a programme of systematic geological and stratigraphic investigations. Early fieldwork involved transport in small open boats, man hauled sledges and much pack carrying to the study area, using primitive equipment and often in harsh conditions. Expeditions from 1949 to 1960 spent much effort on a simultaneous geological and topographical survey using map triangulation to fix the position of mountain tops.Harland, W.B. 1952 ′The Cambridge Spitsbergen Expedition 1949′ Geographical Journal 118, 309-31, 508-9.Harland, WB. 1997 ′The Geology of Svalbard′ Geological Society of London pp20.
He was awarded a Founder's Medal from the Royal Geographical Society in 1968 for his exploration and mapping work. A range of objects used by Harland in survey field work since the 1930s was donated to the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge in 2003.Pickert, S. 2007. ′Building Blocks of the Earth′. In Objects in Transition: an exhibition at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Berlin. pp32-33.
Svalbard Geology From 1961 he extended the Svalbard project by negotiating financial support from oil companies: this enabled a programme of field investigations in wider areas, supported by better transport including a series of motor boats and occasional chartered helicopters. Local successions of rock units and fossils were described and correlations made in accord with the developing stratigraphic standards, providing the data for geotectonic interpretation and historical synthesis. Harland and colleagues’ research into Svalbard geology culminated in the comprehensive ′The Geology of Svalbard′ published in 1997.Harland, W.B. 1997 ′The Geology of Svalbard′ Geological Society of London
Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme (CASP) In 1975 Harland formed the Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme (CASP) as an extension of Cambridge Svalbard Exploration. The objective was field and literature based geological investigations into key aspects of the whole Arctic and surrounding areas, financed by subscriptions from the oil and gas industry. In 1988 CASP was incorporated as a non-profit research institute allied to the Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge University. Its prime objective continued to be independent research, publication and education, while it increased its scope for geo-scientific research to China and Antarctica and other areas far beyond the Arctic. In the year of his death in 2003 CASP employed some twenty-five staff.
Information Management Harland believed in the importance of preserving information and making it available. From his 1949 expedition onwards he operated a universal system for numbering localities, samples and photographs, and this provided the central basis for much collaborative work. Observations and materials collected were the property of the group and belonged to University of Cambridge.
A sophisticated information database, developed out of Harland's extensive library and filing systems, provided the cornerstone of literature based research for CSE and CASP. He developed Georecords, a system where pieces of information were regarded as standard units that could be preserved and handled in a standardised way. A series of paper forms were developed to support the standardisation of geological data extracted from the literature and geologists were employed to complete the forms. These data were then entered into a fully normalized database management system. Work using this system was extensively used, particularly in projects in China and Canada.
Continental Drift Harland was keen on continental drift since reading Alfred Wegener as a schoolboy and advocated the theory in a talk to his school as a 15 year old.Harland, W.B. 1932 ′The Physiological history of the earth' unpublished.Walker, Gabrielle. 2003. In the beginningin ′Snowball Earth′ pp55-82, Bloomsbury. At Cambridge University he found an establishment that was hostile to the idea which was held to be inherently impossible.Jeffreys, H. 1924. The Earth: Its origin, history and physical constitution Cambridge University Press, 6th edition 1976 As a member of staff after the war, when the majority opinion was still opposed to it, he told students to keep an open mind:Frankel, Henry R. 2012 Continental Drift Controversty Cambridge University Press. Vol. 3. p48. by 1964 models favouring continental drift became widely accepted.