| Administrative History | James Alfred Richardson was born on 30 May 1914 in Tooting, London. He was educated at the local elementary school and in 1926 entered the newly established (Sir Charles) Elliott Central School, Southfields, Wandsworth. After obtaining a London County Council Scholarship in 1931, Richardson attended the Science Sixth form at Westminster City School, one of the few to formally include geology in its curriculum. He also took evening classes in Chemistry and Geology at Chelsea Polytechnic, and did so well in his exams that in October 1933 he was able to enter straight into the second year of the four year degree course in Geology at Imperial College of Science and Technology. Richardson was an outstanding student, graduating in 1936 with First Class Honours, as well as the Sir Clement Neve Foster Prize and the Watts Medal for fieldwork.
In October 1936, Richardson was appointed Field Geologist to the Geological Survey Department of the Federated Malay States, notably producing a memoir on the geology of the Ruab Australian Gold Mine in 1939 which was also submitted to the University of London as his external PhD thesis. He was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in November 1938.
Richardson, as was expected of all British male residents in Malaya, joined a branch of the local Volunteer Force and saw active service during the Second World War. However the Japanese invasion of the country resulted in Richardson being discharged from the volunteer unit to be immediately commissioned as 2nd (Acting) Lieutentant in the Intelligence Corps in January 1942. After Singapore's unconditional surrender to Japan in February 1942, Richardson was interned in Changi POW Camp. For the first few months no formal work demands were made of the internees and in order to keep his mind 'active and free' Richardson and his fellow prisoners, who like him had professional qualifications, arranged what was to become known as 'Changi University'. The 'departments' held classes in everything from basic literacy skills to languages and law. Richardson was a member of the 'Engineering Faculty', teaching geology to classes of over 30 students between April to October 1942, even including 'field classes' to some old quarries within the boundaries of the camp.
In October 1942, Richardson was amongst 650 military prisoners moved to join the working parties of the notorious Burma-Siam [Death] Railway. Yet despite bouts of malaria, tropical ulcers, malnutrition and mistreatment, Richardson and the other members of the old Engineering Faculty had time to discuss the geomorphology of Malaya and the future of the country's Geological Survey. He also began work on a paper on the 'Geology of N W Pahang' - it becoming the topic of his thesis for the Diploma of Imperial College on his return to Britain after the War ended.
Although many of his old colleagues returned to Malaya to rejoin the Geological Survey, Richardson resigned from colonial service to instead join Shell. In 1946 Richardson and his family relocated to Maracaibo, Venezuela, eventually becoming the company's Senior Production Geologist by his retirement in 1961. For the next few years, Richardson and his wife travelled widely but eventually settled down in Perth Australia in 1970. Over the next two decades Richardson worked as a consultant for Layton and Associates on petroleum and mineral projects, finally retiring in 1989. Richardson died on 17 August 2007. |