John Smith Flett Sir - Revision history

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	[https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/7fe90cc0-0784-3ce9-8d5f-549bf080aedf?terms=Sir%20john%20flett Papers of Sir John Smith Flett (1869-1947)] Archives Hub		[https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/7fe90cc0-0784-3ce9-8d5f-549bf080aedf?terms=Sir%20john%20flett Papers of Sir John Smith Flett (1869-1947)] Archives Hub

			== John Smith Flett as director of the Survey ==

			'''Extract from: From: Wilson, H.E. Down to earth - one hundred and fifty years of the British Geological Survey. Edinburgh:Scottish Academic Press, 1985. [In all directions: developments under Sir Henry's fourteen successors In all directions: developments under Sir Henry's fourteen successors]'''

			Strahan retired in 1920 and was succeeded by a very different character — John Smith Flett (1869-1947), known to his staff as 'Black John'. Flett had been Petrographer since 1901 when he was 'recruited' from Edinburgh University, and had been Assistant to the Director, in charge of the Edinburgh Office, since 1911. He was a larger-than-life character who had graduated in medicine but because he was congenitally deaf, had switched to geology. He had taught petrology at Edinburgh University before he joined the Survey. His daughter remembers him as a domestic tyrant whose deafness cut him off from his family.

			In 1920-22, after the transfer, in 1919, of the Survey to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research arid the report of the Coal Conservation Committee, there was a major increase of staff, with sixteen new scientific staff and twelve posts of District Geologist rank — six in England,three in Scotland, plus the Petrographer, Palaeontologist and the 'Curator and Librarian', a new post for McLintock, the ex-Assistant Curator who had been in the Royal Scottish Museum since 1911. This organisation, with a few temporary abberrations, lasted for another twenty-five years. To speed up the revision of the maps of the English coalfields Flett established four district offices in Newcastle, Manchester, Whitehaven and York, much against the wishes of some of his senior staff. Similarly, much against the wishes of the Edinburgh staff, Flett instituted an annual attachment of English field men to work in the Scottish Highlands during the brief Highland field seasons, between the spring snows and the August shooting season.

			In this, as in many other ways, Flett ran the Survey as an autocrat. In England he regularly took early trains to York and Manchester on Saturday mornings, arriving at these out-offices to demand a roll-call of his minions.

			Though Flett was not loved he was certainly respected, particularly for his success in getting the new Exhibition Road Museum from the long-projected ideal to its construction. He was also responsible for the revitalization of the Water Supply Memoirs, and for the initiation of work on geophysics.

			Wilfrid (Jim) Edwards remembers field inspections in Orkney by Flett, whose father had been an Orcadian fisherman and whose brother was Mayor of Kirkwall, as a kind of triumphal progress, with all the locals coming to pay their respects to 'Sir John'.

			No explanation has been uncovered for one of Flett's earliest orders, distributed to London office geologists and DGs in 1921:

			::Officers of the Survey are forbidden to receive young women in their private rooms after office hours and when the offices are otherwise vacant. Officers' wives, sisters and daughters are exempt. Warders have strict instructions to report immediately any breach of this regulation.

			Flett retired after the opening of the new Museum and the centenary celebrations and was succeeded by Bernard Smith (1881-1936) who had been on the staff since 1906.

	[[Category:Pioneers of the British Geological Survey]]		[[Category:Pioneers of the British Geological Survey]]

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	== Biographies and obituaries ==		== Biographies and obituaries ==

			[[The Geological Survey under Sir John Smith Flett, 1920–1935\|VIII. The Geological Survey under Sir John Smith Flett, 1920–1935]] From: Flett, J.S. 1937. The History of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office.

			[[1920 Flett succeeds to Directorship - Geological Survey of Great Britain (by E.B. Bailey)\|1920 Flett succeeds to Directorship]] From: Bailey, Sir Edward. Geological Survey of Great Britain. London: Thomas Murby, 1952.

	Spencer, L.J. Obituary - Sir John Smith Flett. Born 26th June 1869, died 26th January 1947. Mineralogical Magazine v. 28 (199) 1947.		Spencer, L.J. Obituary - Sir John Smith Flett. Born 26th June 1869, died 26th January 1947. Mineralogical Magazine v. 28 (199) 1947.

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			{{Pioneers}}
	== Images ==		== Images ==

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	File:P008751.jpg\| Flett is centre, front row		File:P008751.jpg\| Flett is centre, front row
			File:P810130.jpg\| Signature
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	~~{{Pioneers}}~~

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	== Images ==		== Images ==

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	File:P008751.jpg		File:P008751.jpg\| Flett is centre, front row
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