Charles Lapworth 1842 - 1920

Charles Lapworth was born on September 20th, 1842, at Faringdon, in Berkshire. Five years afterwards his parents removed to Lower Newton, one of the farms rented by his grandfather. He attended the country school of Buckland, about two miles off, and the Vicar of the Parish, the Rev. Joseph Moore, finding him an omnivorous reader, lent him books from the library of his beautiful house and practically directed his early education. His mother's influence supported him in his determination to devote himself to the profession of teaching. At the age of 15 he became a pupil teacher in the school, and in the year 1862 entered the Training College at Culham, near Oxford, passing out thence in 1864 with a first-class Government certificate. Of the posts as schoolmaster offered to him he selected that connected with the Episcopal Church at Galashiels, because it would give him a home and work in the fascinating borderland of Sir Walter Scott. This post he retained for eleven years, and was married in 1869 to the daughter of Mr Walter Sanderson, who survives him, and to whose lifelong devotion and thoughtful care he owed much that rendered his work possible.

His holidays and spare time were spent in wandering over the Border region, and about 1866 or 1867 he appears to have become interested in geology, zest being given to the work by the discovery of fossils in rocks which had hitherto been considered barren. In 1869, in company with his friend, Mr James Wilson, he began the study of the geology of the district round Galashiels. As his work became known he was visited by many eminent geologists, among whom may be named Sir William Dawson, Mr Hopkinson, Professor Harkness and Professor Nicholson, with whom he formed a life-long friendship.

The Southern Uplands, in the centre of which, at Galashiels, Lapworth settled down from 1864 till 1875, was known to be made up of rocks of greywacke type, somewhat similar to those of the Lake District and Wales, but singularly barren of fossils. They were known to dip steadily, but not very regularly, from south to north, off a supposed anticline near Hawick, and were considered to constitute a single ascending series not less than five miles (26,000 feet) thick. At intervals there occurred bands of black shale, never more than five or six hundred feet thick, which seemed to be part of the conformable series. These shales yielded almost the only fossils, chiefly graptolites, and very little else.

Now the graptolites collected from one band as a whole were quite comparable with those found in every other band, and the fauna of the lowest band was not appreciably different from that of the highest. Many of these graptolites had been found in the Llandeilo rocks of Wales. These conclusions, if reliable, led inevitably to the following deductions:

• As there was no change in fauna or lithological character the whole series must belong to one Formation.
• The recognised fossils were, or were thought to be, Llandeilo forms - hence that Formation would be the equivalent of the Llandeilo.
• As the same graptolites were found in every shale band throughout five miles of rock, the graptolites as a class were useless as time-indices.
• As 26,000 feet of rock had been deposited during the life time of the Llandeilo graptolites, either:

1. Deposition had been excessively rapid, although the greywackes include ten or twelve black shale bands deposited in deep water; or
2. The graptolites presented an example of a group of organisms which had stood still during the lapse of a long period of time. They were in contradiction to the theory of progress and evolution which was beginning to receive valuable support from geology, particularly in rocks of later ages.

Lapworth's field work had probably begun in 1866, but as a serious study it dates from 1869, and reached the stage of first publication in 1870, when a paper on the Lower Silurian Rocks of Galashiels was read to the Edinburgh Geological Society. From this we gather that he had detected the intense disturbances which had affected the rocks. He had found many fossils in strata supposed to be barren and unpromising, and had begun to realise that these fossils would be of considerable assistance in his work. He had also seen that the Gala Series was a large and united Formation bearing similar monoprionidian graptolites from base to summit, very different from the more varied graptolite fauna of the black shales in the underlying Moffat Series. A very important paper by James Wilson and Lapworth, in 1871, records the result of three years' work. The great significance of the graptolites is now well recognised. The shales, the most important part of the Moffat series, are spoken of as the "Metropolis of the graptolites of Scotland", and the authors feel bound to say, "These peculiar creatures have never yet received the attention they deserve, and those of Britain have been treated so carelessly that the real horizon of some of the species cannot be even guessed at."

By this time also his studies had convinced him that the application of the simple rules and methods appropriate to little-disturbed rocks, to a region in which complicated structure might be concealed, would be highly dangerous and likely to lead to an utterly erroneous interpretation of the geology. He therefore set to work to map its 300 square miles in minute detail with the use of topographical maps on the largest scale he could obtain; and, where these were not large enough to record and depict the structures observed, surveying the ground and constructing his own maps on a sufficient scale. At the same time he applied himself to the study of all the literature, English and foreign, on the graptolites, which he realised were the only organisms likely to afford him any assistance in identifying horizons in the monotonous black shale bands.

In 1875 he was appointed to one of the assistant-masterships in the Madras College, St Andrews. While here he not only continued his study of the Scottish Uplands, but found time to visit localities in England and Wales of importance to his work.

By 1877 he had exhausted his study of the facts in the Moffat district, completed his map, and prepared his memoir for submission to the Geological Society. It was published in the Quarterly Journal for 1878, and at once attracted the interest and sympathy of the younger men, but the incredulity and even hostility of holders of the older views.

In this memoir he confirmed the conclusions summarised above and, among others, established the following:

• The thickness of rocks here is not abnormally great; the appearance of thickness resulting from repetition due to inverted folding and faulting.
• Although the graptolite fauna of any one shale band as a whole is like that of any other, within each band there are a number of successive graptolite faunas, associated with variations in lithology, each distinct from the others.
• Within a single shale band two or more of these graptolite faunas are repeated, sometimes more than once. If in the repetition the faunas occurred in inverted order, evidence of overfolding could often be detected; if the repetition was not in inverted order, evidence of faulting could usually be found.
• The graptolite faunas of a single shale band fall into three chief groups:

1. A 'central' (or lower) one, characterised by didymograptids and nemagraptids, of types known elsewhere in the Llandeilo series (Glenkiln Shales).
2. An 'intermediate' (or middle) one, with dicellograptids, and dicranograptids; comparable with that of the Bala rocks elsewhere (Hartfell Shales).
3. An 'outer' (or higher) fauna, with monograptids, comparable with those of the Coniston mudstones (Stockdale Shales) and other rocks of Silurian or Llandovery age (Birkhill Shales).

The result of this work, however, was not merely to rectify knowledge of the geology of the Southern Uplands. It rendered practically certain a number of inferences of world-wide application, which are not stated in the paper, those there set out being solely concerned with the area studied and the Moffat shale. To the reader is left the task and the pleasure of generalising from the results presented, and of realising how the foundations on which were based so many anomalies and contradictions to scientific principles, and so many obstacles to scientific progress, had crumbled away.

• It had become possible to zone the older Palaeozoic rocks by the same methods as have been used in newer rocks.
• Graptolites are at least as valuable for zone-indices as ammonites and other forms.
• If patient and detailed mapping be based on it, such zoning may be used to unravel the most complicated structures.
• The Southern Uplands are proved to be a region which has suffered from complex earth-movements of the type found in great mountain regions.
• So far from the evolution of the graptolites having stood still while thousands of feet of rock were deposited, the species and assemblages are found to change rapidly in each few successive feet of rock. Instead of controverting current theories of life-progress they give to them a new and firm support.

From 1888 onwards, however, some of the best geologists in the Scottish Geological Survey were engaged in re-examining and re-mapping the Southern Uplands and in testing the validity of the new views. In 1899 the Geological Survey published its great Memoir on the Geology of the Southern Uplands of Scotland, a work which has been described as a 'monument to the genius of the man who made it possible.' In this work, Dr Horne, reviewing the history of research, writes as follows (pp. 24-25);

"In 1878 appeared Professor Lapworth's memoir on 'The Moffat Series' in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. The publication of this paper marks an epoch in the history of the Silurian Geology of the South of Scotland. It remains the greatest and most original contribution to the study of the life-sequence and structural relations of these highly convoluted rocks. Taking Dobb's Linn and Craigmichan Scaurs as typical sections showing the sequence and palaeontological features of the Moffat series, he demonstrates the true order of succession of the strata based on the vertical range of the graptolites."

In 1881 Lapworth was elected to the newly established Chair of Geology and Mineralogy at the Mason College, Birmingham, his title being afterwards modified at his own request to that of Professor of Geology and Physiography. Here he took part in the development of the College which resulted in the establishment of the University of Birmingham in 1900, received in the official degree of M.Sc., and held the Professorship till his retirement in 1913. The University conferred on him the title of Emeritus Professor in 1914.

In 1882, and again in 1884, he was awarded the Lyell Fund, and in 1887 the very distinguished honour of the Bigsby Medal, by the Geological Society. On the occasion of the presentation of this medal the President, Professor J W Judd, remarked:

"The late Dr Bigsby established a medal to be awarded to one 'not too old for further work, and not too young to have done much.' That you admirably comply with the latter qualification every geologist knows, but that your age could possibly fall below the limit prescribed by the founder of the medal, anyone not personally acquainted with you might be pardoned for doubting."

After his illness lasting several months he died on March 13th, 1920, in his 78th year, and was buried by his own desire at the Lodge Hill Cemetery, near Birmingham.

Personal Profile

The leading characteristic was his intense mental and bodily energy, which were so great that they more than once overtaxed his powers. With this was coupled a burning enthusiasm, which never allowed him to shirk trouble in acquiring a fact or devising an explanation; a living belief in the value of research; trust, founded on experience, that problems could be solved; intense faith in his own science, and a love of it which glowed in many of his utterances.

With this love of truth was naturally linked distrust in assumption of authority, unless founded upon a solid basis of well-proved fact. He fought strenuously against any attempt to strangle enquiry by authority, to shackle truth by convention, or to cripple advance by rules of nomenclature. At the International Geological Congress of 1888 he warned the members that no rules must be drawn up or systems imposed, which would hamper investigation or impede advance. On another occasion he penned the following incisive words:

"The subject [geology] is perfectly free and open to all. Every investigator has a right to address himself to any part of the work he pleases, and the right, if he deems it fitting to exercise it, to demand a full recognition of the importance of his own contribution to the common stock of discovery. No investigator, or body of investigators has any claim, beyond that conceded by courtesy, to a monopoly in any special department of geology, local or theoretical. The only available geological possessions of the investigator are his abilities, his opportunities, and the fruit of the good work he has done in the past. The only authority he dare recognise with safety is Nature herself".