OBITUARY

Muriel Agnes Arber, 1913-2004

For someo ne who had such a cen tral ro le in theAssocia tion throu gh difficult yea rs, it has provedalmos t impossible to draft a form al ob ituar y of theusual form for Muriel Arber, who died at Cambridgeon 10 May 2004, aged 90. Wh at follows then is moreof a eulogy and, in some ways. tha t seems moreappropr ia te.

Muriel was a very modest person , while in no wayretiring. She involved herself in all manner of practicalways in the day-to-day running of the GA and, in theprocess, had direct contact with our Membershipwhich they remember quite clearly. I have learnt moreabo ut M uriel over and above my personal contactswith her from their recollections. A picture has built upas a series of reflections, ra ther than an image direct,which acco rds with her general reluct ance to talkabo ut her self, in contras t to her willingness to talkabo ut her pa rent s: her fath er Edward AlexanderNewell Arber (1870-1 918), the palaeobotanist andgeomo rphologist; and her mother, Agnes Arber (1879­1960), F RS, the botanist. Agnes was the first womanbotanist and the third woma n ove ra ll to be elected tothe Ro yal Society ( 1946). Muriel' s life and work inGeo logy did much to remind us of their science, totheir credit.

Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 116, 61-63.

Unlike the palaeob otanist Marie C. C. Sto pes(1880- 1958), who was active in self-promo tion(employing a cuttings agency to record ment ions in theliterature of herself and her father and who had sixcopies made of a full length portrait of herself in DScgown, which she pressed upon the three universitieswith which she had connection s, the others going tolearned soc ieties she favoured), in the Association'sarchives, Muriel Arber is recorded only in informalphotographs taken (as here) when she was almostunaware. She was a great conversationalist, full offascinating an ecdotes of the people she had met inthe course of life a t Cambridge and the SedgwickMuseum; in turn , those people are our main insightinto the role of the narrator and her att itudes.Her parents were, in their different ways, import antscientists and this she would always be intent uponimpressing upon you.

Muriel's father, Newell Arber, Demonstrator inPaleobotan y at the Woodwardian (later Sedgwick)Museum. Cambridge (1899-191 8), was one of thosespecial to th e Cambridge scene in susta ining scholar­ship. Alt hough in title a Palaeobotan ist, thro ugh field­work he was drawn to the study of the cliffs of NorthDevon as an early venture in coastal geomo rphology.This produced his classic book The Coast Scenery ofNorth Devon ( 1911), which was to inspire his daughterlong after his death in 1918. His short life and influenc ewere exceeded by that of her mother who prob ably setthe patt ern of study for Muriel in turn.

Her mother , Agnes Arber, was at University Collegein the early years of the professorship of Francis W .Oliver (1864-1 951), beginning Muriel's links withBot an y. After a brief absence, she returned in theStopes year s to start research and teaching, beforereturning to Cambridge where palaeobotan y led toher marriage on 5 August 1909 with the establisheddemonstrator, Newell Arber. Muriel was always proudto tell that their wedding was conducted, and geo­logically sealed, by Professor Thomas G. Bonney(1833- 1923), sometime Canon of Ely Cathedral andlatel y retired to St John's from his thirty years asYates-Gold smid Professor of Geol ogy in GowerStreet. Muriel was born in Cambridge, 21 July 1913and, apart from two year s at a boarding school inKent , would reside in Cambridge all her life.

Both parents continued teaching and research inBotan y and Palaeobotan y on very low salaries throughthe Fir st World War years, a fact which led to rela­tively modest holidays in either the Devon Coast orLyme Regis, the significance of which could never ha ve

0016-7878/05 $15.00 © 2005 Geologists' Associati on

62 OBITUARY

been anticipated. For her father, it was Devon whichtook his attention, but for mother and the youngMuriel, it was Lyme which became their favouriteretreat. Muriel has recorded the growth of their associ­ations in her most revealing of picture biographies,Lyme Landscape with Figures (1988), beginning withtheir meetings with the palaeontologist Dr William D.Lang (1878-1966) and their entrapment with the fossilsof the Lias of that classic shore. She recalled in thebook how she and her mother began regular visits toLyme after 1922,when they received a windfall cheque.Wending downhill to a sudden vista of Silver Street,

I let out a loud shout of rapture, but this was 1922and I can still hear my mother saying "Darling,you really mustn't make so much noise". I sup­pressed my ecstasy, but I have been shoutingabout Lyme ever since. My mother did not knowthat at that moment I had found the key to thewhole future of my life.

In her later years, Muriel championed the PhilpotsMuseum in Lyme Regis (named for the Philpot sisters(Edmonds, 1976) who were early collectors), for thedisplay of the local fossils which had not found theirway to the Natural History Museum, and the record ofthe famous collectors through two centuries, includ­ing Mary Anning (1799-1847). It gave Muriel greatsatisfaction when Liz-Anne Bawden took over thecustodianship from John Fowles when he becameseriously ill. For the Association, however' her linkswith Lyme Regis will always be through her pains­taking studies of the Lyme landslips (1940,1971,1973),which began in the 1940s and were later describedgraphically in the pages of Fowles' novel, The FrenchLieutenant's Woman and depicted in the film of thenovel. At each Annual Reunion of the Association, wecame to expect that there would be carefully patchedphoto-dioramas of the season's slips and movements,recorded by Muriel on her regular visits. They were thesubject of her Presidential Addresses (1973, 1974), laterprinted privately as a small booklet (in Lyme). It washer appreciation of the importance of a continuingrecord in photographs which made this work a modelfor GA Members, impressing the value of continuousrecording anywhere where geological processes were ina state of change. It was work of which we can onlythink that her father would have been proud to ap­plaud as in keeping with what he had done for the cliffsof North Devon. It was Muriel's delight that she hadbeen able to explain through her own observations(e.g. Arber, 1949, 1974) the nature and origin of the'hogs back' cliffs of Devon and North Cornwall whichhe had been content to describe but had failed toexplain!

Muriel graduated in Geology from NewnhamCollege, Cambridge University (BA 1935, MA 1938).She had satisfaction of subsequently having brieflybeen able to do research in the Sedgwick Museum onstrophomenid brachiopods, under the supervision of

the palaeontologist Oliver M. B. Bulman (1902-1974).The department included Gertrude L. Elles (1872­1960) and Miss Mary Wood, authors of the Mono­graph of British Graptolites, in the aura of Lapworth,merging with that of Sedgwick through the continuingpresence of the stratigrapher John E. Man (1857­1933), the petrologist Alfred Harker (1859-1939) andthe geomorphologist and invertebrate palaeontologistF. R. Cowper Reed (1869-1946). It is easy to under­stand her conversion to Geology from initial intentionsin the Arts (she entered Newnham intending to readEnglish) as the Geological Pantheon in Cambridgespans a whole age of Geology and the history of thesubject.

This emerged one day when we visited together thecemetery off the Huntingdon Road and came uponthe grave of Henry Woods (1868-1952). To me, he wasthe author of a very dull textbook of Palaeontologywith original woodcut illustrations, but to Muriel hewas one of many academic family friends in a close­knit Cambridge society. As usual, Muriel's anecdoteswere amusing, telling and should have been recordedfor posterity (but were not). The Second World Warput an end to her direct links with the Sedgwick andher research interest in brachiopods. In 1942, shebecame a teacher at the King's School in Ely and herlife became more associated with the GA. She retiredin 1973.

From those student years to the conclusion of herlife, Muriel revelled in her Cambridge roots and associ­ations. She was deeply steeped in the rituals of theUniversity which are so difficult for outsiders to appre­ciate. In musical events and those university occasions,she often had the company of the geologist TressilianC. Nicholas (1888-1989), perhaps best known as anextraordinarily successful Senior Bursar of TrinityCollege, Cambridge. Their friendship went back to thepoint at which she was 'allowed' to join the exclusivegeological club membership which regularly went tothe Lleyn Peninsula, that part of North Wales geologywhich is always associated with his researches. Hisconsideration was reciprocated by Muriel in later years- as he approached his one hundredth birthday, Murielforbade him his bicycle until the date was reachedwithout accident.

In the 1970s, the GA went through some years ofcrisis administratively and financially. Council was setproblems which were both taxing and unusual.Through this period, Muriel was a voice of quietauthority that might have come straight from theKing's School. It was also a time when the GA wasconsidering a Code for Geological Fieldwork as aquick response to some very public misbehaviour inthe field by a student party, the code being draftedby the usual committee and repeatedly producingversions which had shortcomings. At this point, Murielassumed a stronger role and, with the help ofex-President Stanley Holmes, cut out the superfluouspoints, got the grammar correct and made it allfocused. It was she who turned all our 'Don'ts'

OBITUARY 63

into 'DO', with the psychological warm feeling whichresults. It was the first such Code and , in its brevity anddirectness, remains one of the most effective in earthscience conservation.

This was just one situation where her advice wasvaluable and sound. Moreover, she had a way ofputting one right without leaving one with a feeling ofhaving been crushed. As Editor of a sometimes con­trover sial Circular, I came to rely upon her judgementand always got a sound respon se. Her anger waseffective if only because it was so unusual andexpressed more in silence or, rather, the absence of thefulsome prai se with which she used show her approvalfollowed by her own special 'chuckle' . In office, she didmuch to build up the Local Groups in the regions,including clubs and societies that wished to retain someof their independence, allowing that the spirit of the

Association was there to be copied as judged fitting.To Muriel , the greatest honours came to her in herPresidency (1972-1974), her Foulerton Award (1983)and her Honorary Membership of the Association in1990. She was also awarded the R. H. Worth prize ofthe Geological Society of London in 1970 and, inher ninetieth year, Muriel was voted Lyme's oldesttourist. To those honours we might add the way inwhich, through her life and work , she added lustreto the science of her parents, and did it with truemodesty. She deserves a place in the formid able list ofCambridge academic ladies.

ERI C R OBINSON

WatchetSomerset

UK

REFERENCESArbe r, E.A .N. 1911. The Coast Scenery ofNorth Devon. J. M. Arber, M.A. 1974. The cliffs of North Devon (Presidential

Dent , London [facsimile reprin t: Kingsmead Reprints, Address). Proceedings 0/ the Geologists' Association, 85,Bath , 1969]. 147-15 7.

Arber , M .A. 1940. Coastal Landslips of South-East Devon. Arber, M.A. 1988. Foreword by John Fowles Lyme landscapeProceedings of the Geologists' Association, 51, 257- 271. and figures. Dorset Books , Exeter.

Arber, M .A. 1949. Cliff profiles of Devon and Cornwall. Edm onds, J.M. 1976. The fossil collection of the MissesGeographical Journal. 94, 191-1 97. Philpot of Lyme Regis. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural

Arber, M.A. 1971. The Plane of Landslipping on the Coast of History and Archaeological Society. 98, 43-48.South-East Devon . In (Steers, J.A.; ed.) Applied CoastalGeomorphology. Macmillan, Lond on , 153-1 54.

Arber, M.A . 1973. Landslip s ncar Lyme Regis (PresidentialAddress). Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 84,121-133.