| Description | Geological field notebooks of the structural geologist Mike Coward, mainly dating between 1964-1990s, covering his undergraduate researches in Iceland, 1964 and Newfoundland, Canada, 1965; postgraduate researches in South Uist, Outer Hebrides, 1966-1968; continuing research in Scotland including the Outer Hebrides and North West Highlands, notably for the Moine Thrust Project, [1969-1990s]; the Andes and Peru, 1969-1970 & 1975; Australia, 1970-1972; Botswana, 1972 & 1974; Rhodesia [now Zimababwe], 1972-1973; South Africa including Limpopo, 1973-1984; Namibia, 1977-1980; Kenya, 1977; Mali, 1978; Zambia, 1980; South west England, Wales & Brittany, 1974-1993; Himalayas in Pakistan and Tibet, 1979-1987; Spain and the Pyrenees, 1979 & 1991; Switzerland and the Alps, 1975-1988; Korea and Japan, 1980 & 1983; United States, 1981 & 1983; desk diaries, 1986, 1990-1992. |
| Administrative History | Michael Peter Coward was born in Bolton, Lancashire on 26 June 1945, growing up as an only child in neighbouring Farnworth. He attended Bolton School and in 1963 entered Imperial College. Despite his scholarship exam being in physics and chemistry, by the time of his official enrolment in the autumn Coward had switched to geology.
Imperial College at that time had one of the best geology departments in the world with staff including notables such as John Ramsay (1931-2021), John Sutton (1919-1992) and Janet Watson (1923-1985). At the end of his first year Coward undertook a mapping project in Iceland which resulted in him developing an interest in volcanology. However under John Ramsay's influence, Coward tastes changed to structural geology.
Having graduated in 1966 with a first class honours degree, Coward considered researching his PhD in Ceylon or southern Africa but Janet Watson, who would become his supervisor, sent him instead to the Outer Hebridean island of South Uist. A number of Watson's graduate students would end up working on the Outer Hebrides including Rod Graham, Rick Sibson, Peter Francis and Richard Lisle. Such was the success of their surveying work that in 1970 Watson approached Sir Kingsley Dunham, Director of the Institute of Geological Sciences, proposing a collaboration to produce a definitive map of the Outer Hebrides. The resulting four geological maps and memoir were issued in 1981 and 1992 respectively.
After finishing his PhD in 1969, Coward returned to volcanic landforms. Travelling to Chile with Peter Francis, the trip was partly funded by the Royal Society and NERC. They flew to Santiago in July 1969 and established field camps in the mining towns of Calimo and Chuquicamata in the High Andes. After travelling through Ecuador, Colombia and Central America, the pair returned to the UK in 1970.
Coward's wanderlust meant that he was only in Britain for a few months before emigrating to Australia after accepting a job with a small, nickel mining company in the Northern Territories and Western Australia. When the company folded, Coward returned to Britain in 1971.
During a field trip to the Outer Hebrides that year, Coward was offered a research assistant post by Robert Shackleton (1909-2001), then Professor of Geology and Director of the Research Institute of African Geology at the University of Leeds. Within the month he was in Africa heading up the Research Institute's project on the Limpopo Belt. Coward would continue to return to Africa to research projects such as the Archaean greenstone of Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe] and the Pan-African Damaran fold belt in Namibia.
In 1975 Coward was appointed to the teaching staff at the University of Leeds. His continued enthusiasm for field work would see him taking his students for off-the-cuff, extra-curricular trips to Pembrokeshire and Brittany to see the structures they had been learning about in real life.
The construction of the Karakoram Highway which linked Pakistan to Western Tibet gave access to one of the world's major geological transects which Coward found hard to resist. From 1979 he undertook pioneering fieldwork in the NW Himalayas funded by NERC but in the summer of 1981 he was nearly killed in a road accident when the vehicle he was travelling in rolled off a narrow road near Skardu, Kashmir. The remote hilly and snowy terrain meant that it was many hours until help came. Landslips and an earthquake would also delay the operation on his badly damaged leg.
Despite this, Coward's work in Tibet continued notably in 1985 when Robert Shackleton asked him to participate in a joint research project funded by the Royal Society and the Academica Sinica. However the following year, before a follow up trip to China was to take place, Coward was diagnosed with a heart problem. A triple bypass operation put paid to any further high altitude expeditions to Tibet. After this, his work mainly concentrated on European geological features such as the Alps.
During his Leeds career, Coward's main research topic was the structural evolution of the Moine thrust belt, funded by NERC. Following his appointment to the H H Read Chair of Geology at Imperial College in 1985, he initially continued trying to trace the Moine thrust system offshore. However this would lead to his developing an interest in the structure of British sedimentary basins which brought him closer to the oil industry and resulted in his setting up the consultancy firm Ries-Coward Associates with his wife Dr Alison Ries. With his health deteriorating, and growing frustrated with the constraints of academia he retired in 1997 from Imperial on medical grounds to concentrate on consultancy work.
Coward's energy and enthusiasm for geology resulted in his authoring 366 scientific papers and editing 10 special publications for the Geological Society. He died on 16 July 2003 just a few weeks after his 58th birthday. |
| ArchNote | Source: Ries, A & RWH Butler, RH Graham, 'Deformation of the Continental Crust: The Legacy of Mike Coward, Geological Society Special Publication, vol 272 (2007), front matter, vii-xii; GSL Obituary, 2003 [https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/About/History/Obituaries-2001-onwards/Obituaries-2003/Michael-Peter-Mike-Coward-1945-2003 accessed 22 July 2019]. Description by Caroline Lam |