Professor Alec Smith
Geologist
ABGS 1942 - 1950

Alec James Smith was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, on January 30, 1932. The family moved to Wales in 1934 and settled at 3 Clifton Crescent, Aberaman, almost adjacent to St Margaret’s Church. The family’s new surroundings must have seemed familiar to them, as like Aberdare, Wakefield also had a long tradition of the coal-mining industry. Alec’s father had come to Aberdare as a youth worker and took on the position of secretary of the YMCA in Aberaman.

After attending Aberaman Junior Mixed School from 1937 to 1942, Alec transferred to the County School in Trecynon. He passed his School Certificate in 1947, was in the last year-group to sit CWB Higher School Certificate examinations in 1950 before GCE A levels were introduced. He passed in Economics, Geology and Geography with distinctions in the last two subjects. He also won the John Hughes Open Scholarship to UCW Aberystwyth which began a long association with university.

He was an undergraduate from 1950 until 1953 when he graduated with 1st Class Honours B.Sc. in Geology. He stayed at Aber for postgraduate study in Geology, focusing on the study of the Aberystwyth Grit Series which involved coastal cliff studies from New Quay to Borth. After three years the award of Ph.D. was made in 1956. Having won an ‘1851 research postdoctoral scholarship’¹ for geological studies, he continued for one more year at the ‘college-by-the-sea’ and finally left in 1957.

He then embarked upon a thirty-five year career as a university academic in the University of London. The following summarises the positions he held during the period from 1957 to his retirement in 1995:

• 1957 appointed lecturer in Geology, University College London
• 1967 appointed Reader in Geology, U.C L.
• 1977 Professor and Head of Department of Geology, Bedford College, University of London
• 1986 Foundation Professor of Geology and HoD, Royal Holloway, University of London² (RHUL)
• 1992 retired, then assisted the Principal at RHUL until 1995.

Besides lecturing and, in 1985 creating and directing a new and active academic department at Royal Holloway, Alec had a broad spectrum of research interests, usually overlapping, with a global distribution.

• Lake sediments, Windermere (1957 - 1960)
• Turbidite sedimentation, Polish Carpathian mountains, with Krakow University (1957 - 1964)
• Submarine geology of the English Channel with Bristol University (1957 - 1977)
• Geology of the Godavari Valley, India and a search for dinosaurs (1959 -1964)
• Supervision of postgraduate geological studies of parts of central Anatolia, Turkey (1964-1973)
• Sedimentary geology of various regions of Japan (1972 - 1992) and Visiting Professor, Tokai University, Japan (1975 - 1980)
• Supervision of postgraduate studies of parts of the Caribbean and off-shore N.E.Brazil in a UNESCO International collaborative maritime programme (1975 -1980)
• Participating sedimentologist, Deep Sea Drilling Programme, Leg 87, Nankai Trough off S.E. Japan (1980 - 1985)
• Desk studies of the geological resources of continental shelves with particular reference to British Dependencies (1983 -1993)
• The origin and alteration of ikaite (CaCO₃.6H₂O) (1982 - 1993)
• The History of Sedimentology (2002 - 2008)

In addition to his responsibilities at RHUL he organised several national and international conferences: he was elected Treasurer and Vice-President of the Geological Society, London; President, Geologists’ Association; Chairman, Greenwich Forum; Chairman, Watt Committee on Energy; Chairman, Geological Grants Committee, Natural Environment Research Council; President, Section C (Geology) British Association for the Advancement of Science, (1991-1992); Geological Advisor to Kuwait University, (1991-1992); and Creator of the magazine Geology Today, 1985.

He was the recipient of many awards: The Coke Medallist of the Geological Society of London; Fellow of the Society for Underwater Technology; and Fellow of Royal Holloway University of London. He is now Professor Emeritus - University of London.

His record of over 100 published scientific papers is prodigious. He is also the author, or co-author, of four books:

• Geology, Hamlyn, London, 1974. ISBN: 0-600-33932-7
• Exclusive Economic Zones - British Dependencies, Elsevier Applied Science, 1989. ISBN: 0947711589
• Geology of England and Wales, Geological Society, 1993. ISBN: 0-903317-71-0
• The Evolution of Clastic Sedimentology, Dunedin Academic Press, 2005. ISBN: 1-903765-49-8

In his retirement he edits geological publications translated from Japanese and he prepares the occasional scientific paper.

Alec married Anita Kenyon in 1990, and since 1992 Alec has taken the name Alec Kenyon-Smith. Alec & Anita set up homes in both Scotland and Denmark in 1992.

March 31st, 2011

Postscript :— Professor Alec Smith died on 12th November 2015 in hospital in Scotland after a short period of ill health. He is survived by his widow, Anita; his ex-wife, Joan Lilwall-Smith; his son Andrew Lilwall-Smith; daughter Dr Janet Jenkins; and 2 grandchildren. Tributes to Alec have been published on-line.³

January 27th, 2016

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1. The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 is a grant-making educational trust, providing funding for individuals, companies and organisations, particularly in scientific and technological disciplines.
2. In 1985, Bedford College merged with Royal Holloway College.
3. By Professor Paul Layzell and by Professor Derek Blundell. Writing of Alec, Professor Bundell concludes thus,“The Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway is his legacy.”