| Description | Tape 1 Side A
DEREK FLINN born Harrow, (London), 24.12.1922. Paternal family background. Mentions ancestors apprenticed to engravers. Another joined East India Company army - typical of family he was not an officer. Explains. Mentions being third generation research scientist on mother's side. Grandfather a Post Office engineer, inventor. Details. Reference to Marconi. Mother a twitcher. Explains twitching, mother's interest in ornithological research, her attitude to research. Brothers research physicists. Father in first world war, won Military Medal; in Home Guard in next war. He worked in bank. Recalls childhood home in Amersham, father's work routine. Describes his social life, attitudes of parents. Details re brothers. Recalls childhood home lifestyle, holidays in Newquay boarding house, on Norfolk Broads. Family attitude to religion; own involvement with 'Crusaders', their attitude to lower class people. Went to Dr Challenor's Grammar School. Details. Recalls snooty people in Amersham. Explains class mix of students at school; contrasts with other schools. Explains own progress through school, rise from bottom place to top. Background to being sent to Crusaders by mother, an atheist. Parents' attitude to church. Own reaction to Crusaders, adoption of life-long atheism. Comments on agnosticism, reason for rejection of it. Mentions book on geologist Frank Cole Phillips, relevance of his experience to own. Comments on changes in theories re origins of granite, own firm attitude. Reference to paper written in 1956 (on Deformation of Funzie Conglomerate in Shetland in Geological Journal), its reinterpretation by others. Recalls pre-war family relationships, attitudes of young, compared with today.
Tape 1 Side B
Early nature walks with parents with Hertfordshire Natural History Society. Recalls significant geological trip near Chiltern escarpment. Details re geology around Amersham, flint, own collections of various pieces. Recalls influence of grandfather, his collection of discharge tubes. Reference to x-ray. Mentions mother's twitching. Own feelings about sport, frustrations at progress at school. High achievement at university. Attitude of teachers. Recalls encouragement of a science teacher. Political attitudes of parents. Career aspirations when at school. Recalls father's supply of books from Mudies Library. Recalls own reading interests when young. Feelings about current television fare. Attitudes when young to sex education etc, and now. Own progress at school. Reads from mother's diary. Family not affected by the depression. Explains. Left school 1939 aged 17. Explains family attitude to university, attitude of school. Joined bank as a clerk. Nearly driven mad by job. Explains. Details re work. Had no particular mentor. Explains. Background to joining Royal Marines. Mentions Air Commodore uncle, own thoughts re joining air force. Attraction of Marines. Explains own desire for elitism, effects of treatment by teachers at school. Placed in squad of older men in Marines; in MMBDO1 - mobile base organisation. Details. Trained in searchlight unit. Mentions request to join commandos.
Tape 2 Side A
Disappointment at not being able to join commandos. Explains desire to succeed. Background to joining 385 Detatchment (later SBS - Special Boat Service) in Ceylon led by Hassler. Details re SBS, SAS. Describes Hassler, his democratic attitude. Explains contrast in Royal Marines and Guards drill procedures. Recalls self-discipline in war work. Less regimentation, more self-discipline in Royal Marines. Never shot at enemy. Explains need to avoid contact when working in 'small operations' in Japanese areas. Examples of tasks carried out - burying food, water for stranded sailors etc, delivery of agents into enemy territory via submarines etc. Details re numbers of Marines killed. Type of people needed for such operations - all volunteers. Story of how became a geologist, pivotal meeting in a dugout canoe with a captain in Gurkha Rifles off Ceylon when going to a rest house to await a submarine. Details re rest houses. Reference to being presented with geological medal; Ceylon Sea Anglers' Association; ISLD (Inter-Service Liaison Department). First steps to becoming a geologist. Reference to book Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome. Recalls early interest in dinosaurs but had no intention of being a geologist. Recalls first 'field trip' during war. Details re dispensation necessary to go to university. Reason for first going to Chelsea to do a pre-degree year. Details. High results achieved. Reason for going to Imperial College and not Oxford, Cambridge. Situation then in academic world. Reason for desire to study geology. Reference to geography.
Tape 2 Side B
Recalls feelings at end of war, impact of atom bomb, feelings at ending service with Royal Marines. Features of work common to geology and SBS work, contrasts. Recalls time at Imperial College. Able to relate to Professor Herbert Harold Reid. Comments on Frank Cole Phillips. Mentions fellow students. Impact of Professor Reid, compares his practical attitude to that of other staff. Recalls division between predominantly field-based and office-based geologists. Own attitude, ambition. 1950-52 completed PhD. Recalls early desire to return to South East Asia as a geologist. First class honours in first degree. Recalls independent study done in Shetland. Impact of this on future work. Explains attraction of Shetland as a place of study - benefit of working on an island. First Shetland work carried out in Unst. Explains early idea that Unst was a key to major work. Explains. Mentions Professor Reid's mapping work on Unst. Details re PhD work in mid-Shetland. After PhD started 30-year work studying Shetland from south to north getting back to Unst. Explains. Compares own systematic approach of with that of other geologists. Reason for branching out from basic ground mapping work to studying other aspects of geology, remaining a generalist. Details re survey mapping work. Took on specialist aspects of work. Describes last map produced showing surface geology, sub-surface rock, glacial effects etc. Did specialist studies of glaciation of Shetland. Describes study process, collection of rocks. Work largely ignored by other geologists. Explains. Describes approach of others, own approach in Shetland work.
Tape 4 Side 1 (the 'corrected tape' recorded by the interviewee himself)
First battle of Sullom Voe: story re man who made a bid for financing, building Sullom Voe, negative reaction of locals. Details. Reference to Ian Clark, Shetland Islands Council. Own involvement in second battle of Sullom Voe re whether oil stored underground or on surface. Recalls Aberdeen University Geography Department plan for underground storage. Involvement of Swedish company, hired to investigate possibility. Details re scheme. Describes unstable geology of area. Attitude of Shetland Islands Council, oil companies. Vague conclusion of Swedish report. Details. Entered battle, described scheme as load of nonsense. Details re own letters in Shetland Times, proposal for silo-type oil tanks, reaction of Convenor of Shetland Islands Council. Reference to article by Guardian correspondent, Anthony Tucker; other correspondence on the issue, eg in Glasgow Herald. Comments on proximity of proposed underground storage to major fault, structural problems. Reaction to own input into controversy. Reference to environmental situation. Comments on letter from SIC Convenor in paper. Mentions mapping Sullom Voe inch by inch in the course of own work. Had no links with oil industry, few contacts. Lack of interest of SIC in own work. Mentions exploitation of one of the beaches connecting coast with islands, own efforts at protecting it, attention paid by Council to advice. Their attitude now. Attitude of Council to own major work, their use of outside advisors.
PLEASE NOTE - The original interview consisted of three tapes. Yet, the interviewer was not happy with the way the final tapes turned out and wanted to destroy tape 3, and record a replacement himself (which became tape 4). Yet although the recording of tape 3 was destroyed, a synopsis of the interview still exists and is shown below).
Tape 3 Side A
Lecturer, Liverpool University, continued Shetland research. Mentions work on west Shetland of two best students. First southern North Sea gas discovery - might have been in a different planet because of different geology. In earlier years, North Sea was 'opaque'. Explains. No speculation re what was beyond low tide lines. Started to look (1960s) at other aspects of geology from metamorphic hard rock. Started compiling map showing movement of ice over Shetland. Details. Reference to Peach and Horne. Started, using fishing boat, running echo traces showing bathymetry of sea floor round Shetland. Comments on state of Admiralty charts. Reference to 1964 paper (Coastal and submarine features around the Shetland Islands). Extended work to whole northern North Sea, before oil people got going. Publication of 1973 paper (The topography of the seafloor around Orkney and Shetland and in the northern North Sea). First such mapping of North Sea. Own first realisation of presence of oil when oil companies announced it. Interested in interpreting sea floor. Details re Shetland icecap. Oil people covered small area in North Sea. Own work, map discussed in article by Vivian Caston in Offshore Magazine. Possible significance of own bathymetric work. Details re bathymetry, relationship to icecap. Significance of work to oil industry. Details re Norwegian, Shetland icecaps. Did not write speculative papers re oil. Own work set framework within which oil industry working. Details re own aeromagnetic maps. Reference to 1969 paper (A geological interpretation of the aeromagnetic maps of the continental shelf around Orkney and Shetland).
Tape 3 Side B
1969 map indicated potential oil-bearing areas. Details re aeromagnetic map showing metamorphic, igneous rocks, sediments etc. First to publish interpretation of maps. Reference to British Geological Survey. Significance of own maps, work. Explains approach to work extrapolating patterns found on land out to seafloor. Oil industry secretive. Uncertain re own influence on industry. Mentions acknowledgement of own work by BP man Vivian Caston. Contact with oil industry only through letters. Details. Caston lectured at Liverpool. Explains length of time getting work published. Attitude of BGS to own work, cliques in geological world. Acknowledgement of work, eg by Murchison Medal, Geological Society (1982). Own way of working different from others'. Details re wife, children. Shetland 1:10,000 survey work completed c3 years ago. Still goes to Shetland. Details re accommodation there. Mentions writing book (Travellers in a Bygone Shetland, 1989). Always interested in Shetland way of life. Mentions collection of old Shetland books. No-one carrying on own work in Shetland. Explains giant fault running through Shetland. Mapped everything east of fault. Mentions work done by students. Risk of own work getting mixed up with that of amateur geologists. Blessing that few geologists go to Shetland, therefore fewer controversies there. Attitude of others to own work; opinion of their work, approach. Mentions current project, changes in geology. Explains own approach to work; current simplistic approach in field of dating material, interpretation. Explains involvement with Sullom Voe terminal establishment. |