ROBINSON
,
GILBERT WOODING
(
1888
-
1950
),
professor of Agricultural Chemistry, world authority on soils
;
b. at
Wolverhampton
,
7 Nov. 1888
, s. of
John Fairs
and
Mary Emma
Robinson
. He was educated at
Wolverhampton grammar school
and
Cambridge University
where he was a scholar of
Caius College
(
B.A.
1910
). For two years he acted as
demonstrator
in the
School of Agriculture
at
Cambridge
and completed a
survey of the soils and agriculture of Shropshire
(
1913
). In
1912
he was appointed
adviser in Agricultural Chemistry
under the
Board of Agriculture
for the
north Wales
area at
University College
,
Bangor
, a post he held until the service was re-organised in
1946
. In
1926
he was appointed
Professor of Agricultural Chemistry
at
Bangor
, and became a
world authority on soils
, his early
research being on the palaeozoic soils of north Wales
and on the
mechanical analysis of soils
. He
built up a school of research in his dept
. at
Bangor
,
initiated a Soil Survey of Wales
and trained many graduate surveyors for this work in
Britain
and overseas. He became the first
director
of the
National Soil Survey of England and Wales
from
1939 to 1946
when the service was transferred to
Rothamsted
.
Robinson
was a prominent figure in the
International Society of Soil Science
, he attended its first Congress in
USA
in
1925
, and was
president
of its first Commission for several years. He travelled widely in
Europe
,
West Indies
,
USA
, and
Africa
, and in
1949
visited
Australia
and
New Zealand
as a delegate of
the Royal Society to the
Pacific Science Congress
. He was devoted to
Spain
and its language, was hon. member of
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas
, and held its
medal of distinction
. He was
interested in the classics
; he was
President
of the
North Wales
Branch of the
Classical Association
in
1928
.
His book
Soils, their origin, constitution and classification
(
1932
) was the first
English
textbook on pedology. In
1937
he published
Mother earth
in the form of letters to
R.G.
Stapledon
(see below)
revealing his Virgilian outlook on the countryside, and
wrote many technical articles to scientific journals
. He received many honours —
Cambridge Sc.D.
in
1936
,
F.R.S
. and
C.B.E.
in
1948
. He was a
J.P.
for
Caernarfonshire
and served on the
Departmental Committee on Rural Education in Wales
(
1928-30
), the
Central Advisory Council for Education in Wales
, and as a devoted member of
The Church in Wales
he was
Chairman
of the
Bangor Diocesan Religious Education Committee
, and on the
Governing Body of the Church in Wales
from
1939
. He was
vice-principal
of
University College Bangor
in
1947-48
and
Dean of the Faculty of Science
from
1948
.
In
1913
he m. (1)
Winifred Annie
Rushworth
of
Louth
,
Lincolnshire
, and they had one s. and three dau. In
1949
he m. (2)
Mary Isabel
, dau. of
H.L.
James
,
Dean of Bangor
. He d. in
Bangor
on
6 May 1950
.
Bibliography:
-
Journal of Soil Science
,
1950-1993
, 2, no. 2,
1951
;
-
Agricultural Progress the journal of the
Agricultural Education Association
, London
, 25, pt. 1,
1951
;
-
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal
Society
, London, 1932-54
, vol. 7,
Nov. 1951
;
-
Who's who?
.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Alun Roberts, C.B.E., Ph.D. (1894-1969),
Bangor
