Abstract
FEBRUARY 16, 1839, was an important date in JT the history of the Geological Survey, for on that day Mr. (as he was then) H. T. de la Beche wrote a letter which eventually resulted in the Survey being changed from a one-man affair, with no settled headquarters, to a great organization with an office in London*. It was something to have persuaded the Government to make a grant of £300 for the purpose of colouring geologically a few sheets of the Ordnance Survey map, but a geological survey of the whole of England and Wales was quite another matter, and, like Oliver Twist, de la Beche was continually asking for more—money for instruments, a travelling allowance, and permission to extend the survey into other parts of the country. He was not only able to envisage a National Geological Survey but he had also the courage and perseverance to overcome official inertia in order to establish it.
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NORTH, F. H. T. de la Beche: Geologist and Business Man. Nature 143, 254–255 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143254a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143254a0