A. E. Trueman


Sir Arthur Elijah Trueman was a British geologist.

Life

Trueman was born in Nottingham, the son of Elijah Trueman, a lacemaker, and his wife Thirza Newton Cottee.
He was educated at High Pavement School in Nottingham from 1899 to 1911, then became a student teacher at Huntington Street School, Nottingham. He entered University College Nottingham in 1912 with a grant as a teacher in training, and studied Geology under H.H. Swinnerton, graduating B.Sc. with first-class honours in 1914. He gained a M.Sc in 1916 and doctorate in 1918, all from University College Nottingham.
Trueman's first academic post was as Assistant Lecturer at University College, Cardiff, from late 1917 until 1920. From 1920 on, he was lecturer and head of the Department of Geology at the newly established University College, Swansea, and was appointed Professor of Geology and head of the Department of Geography in 1930. In 1933, he was appointed Chaning Wills Professor of Geology at the University of Bristol, where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Science for three years. Amongst his students at that time was the young future Professor L.R. Moore. In 1937, he was invited chair of geology at the University of Glasgow until 1946, to be succeeded by his student Thomas Neville George.
In 1938 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John Walton, George Tyrrell, John Weir and James Pickering Kendall. In 1942 he was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
From 1946 until 1953 he served in the University Grants Committee, since 1949 as chairman. From 1945 to 1947, he was president of the Geological Society of London. He also served as chairman of the British Association Committee on the Teaching of Geology in Schools, as president of the Geological Section of the Bristol Naturalists' Society, and president of the Glasgow Geological Society.
He was knighted by King George VI in 1951.
He died in London on 5 January 1956.

Family

In 1920, he married Florence Kate Offler.

Recognition

He received four honorary LL.D. degrees, from Glasgow, Rhodes, Wales, and Leeds.

Works

Subsequently revised by Whittow J.B. & Hardy J.R. and republished as: