Sissons, Brian, 1926-2018 (British earth scientist)
Dates
- Existence: 23 June 1926 - 20 January 2018
Biography
Dr Brian Sissons was born in 1926 in Batley, Yorkshire, son of Jack Sissons, a head teacher, and his wife, Elvena (nee Tilley). Between 1937 and 1944 Brian attended Batley Grammar School, where he became interested in geomorphology. In 1944 he won an Open Exhibition to St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, but was almost immediately conscripted to serve as a radio operator in the Navy. In 1947 he was able to return to Cambridge, and graduated with a First Class Honours BA in 1950. He then remained in Cambridge to complete a PhD on the denudation chronology of SW Yorkshire under the supervision of R.F. Peel.
In 1953 he came to Edinburgh and was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Geography at the University of Edinburgh, later becoming Lecturer (1954/67), then Reader (1967/82). He remained at Edinburgh until his early retirement in 1982, apart for a year as visiting Assistant Professor at McGill University, Canada in 1957/58. During this period he published eighty papers, mostly devoted to aspects of the Quaternary geomorphology of Scotland. He wrote two books, The Evolution of Scotland’s Scenery (1967), which synthetised all earlier literature on the geomorphology of Scotland, and The Geomorphology of the British Isles: Scotland (1976), which provided an update based on Sissons’s own research, as well as his students’. Amongst his main contribution to knowledge were his work on the ‘Loch Lomond Readvance’, and on Glen Roy ‘parallel roads’. Additionally, the boreholes he made with his research students in the Forth valley were instrumental in revealing the first evidence for the great tsunami on Scottish coasts of 8,200 years ago.
His research was recognised by the award of a DSc from the University of Edinburgh, the Clough Medal of the Edinburgh Geological Society, the Research Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, the Back Award of the Royal Geographical Society and an honorary membership of the Quaternary Research Association.
His research was recognised by the award of a DSc from the University of Edinburgh, the Clough Medal of the Edinburgh Geological Society, the Research Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, the Back Award of the Royal Geographical Society and an honorary membership of the Quaternary Research Association.
Brian Sissons shared his life with Betty, his wife of many years, whom he married in 1950. They had two children, Andrew and Jane.
He died in Edinburgh on the 20 January 2018, aged 91.
Source: Colin Ballantyne, 'John Brian Sissons (1926 – 2018)', Quaternary Newsletter, 2018.