Dr. Bernard Smith, 1881 - 1936

By the death of Dr. Bernard Smith, on 19 August, 1936, after a short illness at the age of fifty-five, English Geology and the Geological Survey of Great Britain suffered an untimely loss. A field geologist of wide experience, he had served on the Survey for almost thirty years before, in October, 1935, he became its Director. The services he rendered to science in interpreting the stratigraphy and structure of Lower Palaeozoic ground in Denbighshire, and in discovering and working out the system of the glacier-lake overflow -channels about the margins of the Lake District, are outstanding ; his able advocacy of descending waters as the vehicle of emplacement of Cumbrianironores ; and his efficient leadership of the team of geologists who revised the Cumberland Coalfield,will not soon be forgotten.