John Edward Marr

Background

Marr was born in Poulton-le-Sands on 14 June 1857 to John Marr, a retired silk merchant, and his wife Mary.

Education

From 1867 to 1875 he studied at the Lancaster Royal Grammar School, where he met R. H. Tiddeman, who took Marr on a number of field trips and geological surveys. There he studied under Thomas George Bonney and Thomas McKenny Hughes, graduating with First Class Honours in 1878.

Career

After studying at Lancaster Royal Grammar School he matriculated to Street John"s College, Cambridge, graduating with First Class Honours in 1878. In 1886 Marr became University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge Department of Geology, a position he held for 32 years until he succeeded Thomas McKenny Hughes as Woodwardian Professor of Geology in 1917. Having retired as a professor in 1930, he died on 1 October 1933.

After the family stayed in Caernarfon in 1863 Marr became interested in geology, having discovered a fossil which was named after him.

As an undergraduate he published several papers, including one on his discovery of Cambrian fossils in Caernarfonshire that could not be accurately dated, something that occupied a lot of his later work. In 1879 he became a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and in 1881 he was elected a Fellow of Street John"s College.

After graduating Marr used two research funds from the Worts Fund of Cambridge University to investigate the work done in Bohemia and Scandinavia to reorder the older palaeozoic rocks, his work in the Lake District having convinced him that it was possible to order the confusing succession of palaezoic rocks as it then stood. In 1879 he travelled to the collection of Joachim Barrande, who had found newer Upper Silesian fossils among older Lower Silesian ones and hypothesised that the two groups existed side by side.

Marr instead proved that the younger fossils had "dropped" into the older rock as a result of faults in the stone.

Marr then returned to the Lake District, where he worked with Henry Alleyne Nicholson on the succession of the Stockdale Shales. He then worked with Alfred Harker on a similar project in Shap. In his Lake District work Marr came up with the idea of lag faulting to explain the topography of the District, subscribing much of the layout to glacial erosion.

His theories were later published in a 1916 book The Geology of the Lake District.

Achievements

• In 1886 Marr became University Lecturer in Geology at the University of Cambridge, a position he held for 32 years until he succeeded Thomas McKenny Hughes as Woodwardian Professor of Geology in 1917. He spent 13 years as Professor before retiring due to ill-health in 1930, followed by his death on 1 October 1933. Marr served as Secretary of the Geological Society of London from 1888 to 1898, Vice-President and President from 1904 to 1906, serving on the council for 35 years and as Foreign Secretary for 3. The Society awarded him the Lyell Medal in 1900 and the Wollaston Medal in 1914. In 1891 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, serving on the Society council from 1904 to 1906, and was awarded their Royal Medal in 1930.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Scientific Study of Scenery

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Cumberland, (Cambridge county geographies)

    (Publisher: Cambridge University Press Publication date: 1...)

  • Agricultural Geology

    (This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before ...)

  • The Scientific Study of Scenery 1900 Hardcover

    (Lang:- English, Pages 429. Reprinted in 2015 with the hel...)

  • The scientific study of scenery,
  • Agricultural geology
  • Agricultural geology (Volume 2)
  • The scientific study of scenery;: With twenty-three illustrations and numerous diagrams in the text
  • The Scientific Study of Scenery
  • The scientific study of scenery,

Membership

Fellow of the Royal Society. Club: Athenaeum.

• Fellow of the Royal Society. Club : Athenaeum.

Interests

• Walking.