Robert Heron Rastall Explained

Robert Heron Rastall (November 8, 1871, Turnerdale Hall near Whitby, North Yorkshire – February 3, 1950) was a British geologist and petrologist. In 1946 he was awarded the Lyell Medal.[1]

Education and career

Robert Heron Rastall was the eldest son of the Cambridge alumnus Herbert Augustus Henry Rastall (1847–1910) of the manor Turnerdale Hall near Whitby.[2] After studying agricultural science and taking a diploma from the Royal Agricultural Society of England, Robert H. Rastall held an appointment as a staff member of the Tamworth Agricultural College and Training Farm,[3] which was in operation from 1886 to 1914.[4] In 1899 he matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge. There he studied geology and graduated with a B.A. with 1903 and an M.A. in 1906. In London at Messrs. Wren and Gurney's, he was a lecturer in geology from 1903 to 1906 and from 1908 to 1909. From 1906 to 1913 he was a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.[3] He was employed from 1910 to 1919 as an additional demonstrator in geology at the University of Cambridge and from 1915 to 1919 also worked in economic geology for the British War Office. At the University of Cambridge he was appointed in 1919 a lecturer in economic geology and was awarded the Sc.D. in 1921. During his teaching career, he served for some years as the president of the University of Cambridge's Catholic Association. From 1926 until his death in 1950 he was a supernumerary fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.[3]

Research and editorial work

Rastall was an active member of both the Geological Society of London and the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland and served on the councils of both societies. Rastall's research focused on petrology and structural geology. From 1903 to 1914 he did research in the Lake District and in South Africa. During those years he published papers on the Ennerdale granophyre, the metamorphism of the rocks around the Skiddaw granite, and the sedimentary petrology and geological structure of south-eastern England, as well as the structural geology of the rocks near Worcester, South Africa. In 1911 he co-authored, with Philip Lake, the Text-Book of Geology. Rastall was the author of the books Agricultural Geology (1916), The Geology of the Metalliferous Deposits (1923), and Physico-Chemical Geology (1927). In 1916 Rastall began assisting Henry Woodward in editing the Geological Magazine and became in 1919 the editor-in-chief. In 1934 Oliver Bulman and Rastall became co-editors-in-chief of the Geological Magazine and their editorial partnership continued until Rastall's death in 1950. Rastall served as the geological editor for the 1929 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Some time around the beginning of WW II, Rastall retired from the University of Cambridge to live in his old home in the village of Ruswarp near Whitby. In retirement, he did research, in collaboration with John Edwin Hemingway (1906–1997), on Yorkshire's Jurassic rocks.[3] [5]

Selected publications

Articles

Books

References

  1. Web site: Lyell Medal, Past winners. The Geological Society of London.
  2. Web site: Turnerdale Hall, North Yorkshire. snaptrip.com.
  3. Wilcockson, W. H.. Obituary. Dr. R. H. Rastall. Nature. 165. 4194. 425. 10.1038/165425a0. 18 March 1950.
  4. Web site: Agricultural Colleges in Britain . 26 March 2012 .
  5. 10.1144/pygs.52.1.119 . Obituary: John Edwin Hemingway (1906–1997) . 1998 . Rayner . Dorothy H. . Dorothy Helen Rayner. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society . 52 . 1 . 119 . 1998PYGS...52..119R .

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