{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}} {{Short description|20th-century Scottish geologist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | honorific_suffix = FRSE FGS FMS | image = | image_size = 200px | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1893|04|03}} | birth_place = Govan; Scotland | nationality = |citizenship = | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1986|05|18|1893|04|03}} | death_place = Edinburgh; Scotland |resting place= |resting_place_coordinates = |father = John Clark Phemister |mother = Elizabeth Galbraith Crawford |relatives = Thomas Phemister (brother) |spouse= Margaret Clark |children = 2 sons and a daughter | death_cause = | field = | work_institutions = British Geological Survey<br> Geological Museum | education = University of Glasgow | thesis_title = A petrological study of the composite alkaline intrusions of north-west Sutherlandshire | thesis_url = | thesis_year = 1928 | known_for = |awards = |religion = |signature = }} Dr '''James Phemister''' FRSE FGS FMS (3 April 1893 – 18 May 1986) was a 20th-century Scottish geologist.

==Life==

He was born in Govan on 3 April 1893, the son of John Clark Phemister (b.1858) and his wife, Elizabeth Galbraith Crawford. He was the older brother to Thomas Phemister.

He studied mathematics, natural philosophy and geology at Glasgow University graduating MA BSc in 1915.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biography of James Phemister |url=http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH26781&type=P |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222051419/http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH26781&type=P |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 December 2017 |access-date=24 July 2018 |website=The University of Glasgow Story }}</ref> His career was interrupted by the First World War during which he served in the Royal Garrison Artillery. He was severely wounded in 1917.<ref>{{Cite web |title=James Phemister – Obituary |url=https://www.geologyglasgow.org.uk/docs/017_070__phemister_1485436120.pdf |access-date=24 July 2018 |website=Proceedings of the Geological Society of Glasgow for Sessions 129–132 (1986–1990), pages 32–34}}</ref><ref name="Howie">{{Cite journal |last=Howie |first=R.A. |date=1987 |title=Memorial of James Phemister 1893–1986 |url=http://www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM72/AM72_1275.pdf |volume=127 |pages=1275–1276 |periodical=American Mineralogist}}</ref>

right|thumb | The Stackaberg Thrust, Fetlar, based on work that Phemister carried out in Shetland in 1930<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://archive.org/details/1930pt1GeoologicalSurveyGreatBritainSummaryImages |title=Summary of progress of the geological survey of Great Britain for 1930, Part 1 |date=1931 |publisher=HMSO |location=London}}</ref>In 1921 he joined the British Geological Survey as a Geologist, mainly working in the Scottish Highlands.

Between 1926 and 1929 he worked in Persia with W. F. P. McLintock, pioneering the use of the gravity torsion balance in oil exploration.<ref name = Howie/><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=McLintock |first1=W.F.P. |last2=Phemister |first2=J. |date=1929 |title=The use of the torsion balance in the investigation of geological structure |volume=38 |pages=209–303 |periodical=Trans. Inst. Min. & Metall.}}</ref>

In 1931 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Murray Macgregor, Sir John Smith Flett, W. F. P. McLintock and Herbert Harold Read. He won the Society's Neill Prize for the period 1959–61.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf |title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 |date=July 2006 |publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh |isbn=0-902-198-84-X |access-date=18 December 2017 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1935 he moved to London as official Petrograher to HM Geological Survey.

In the Second World War he served with the government's Chemist Department, his roles including geological analysis of ballast within the V-1 flying bomb to assess where it might have been launched.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ransted |first=Chris |title=Disarming Hitlers V Weapons |date=2013 |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |chapter= Introduction |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BZFABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 |isbn=9781781593868}} citing AVIA 22/2463 ''German flying bombs: reports'', The National Archives, UK</ref>

In 1946 he became Assistant Director to HM Geological Survey but gave up the post in 1953 in order to return to Edinburgh, working in the Grange Terrace office with Dr Walter Mykura.

He died in Edinburgh on 18 May 1986.

==Family==

He was married to Margaret Clark (d.1982). They had two sons and a daughter.

==Selected publications==

*{{Cite report |title=Scotland: The Northern Highlands |last=Phemister |first=James |date=1936 |publisher=HMSO |location=Edinburgh |series=British Regional Geology}} The full text of the Third Edition of this work (1960) is available at {{Cite web |title=Archive.org |date=1960 |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) |url=https://archive.org/details/ScotlandNorthernHighlandsBritishRegionalGeologyImages}} * {{cite book |first= Ivan |last= Kostov |author-link= Ivan Kostov Nikolov |title= Mineralogy |translator = Kostov, Ivan |translator-link= Ivan Kostov Nikolov |editor2= Phemister, James |editor2-link= James Phemister |editor1= Embrey, Peter G. |place= Edinburgh & London |publisher= Oliver & Boyd |year= 1968|oclc = 42358 |isbn= 9780050016671}} *{{Cite book |last1=Mykura |first1=Walter |author-link= Walter Mykura |title=The geology of Western Shetland: (explanation of One-inch Geological Sheet Western Shetland, comprising Sheet 127 and parts of 125, 126 and 128) |last2=Phemister |first2=James |last3=Sabine |first3=Peter Aubrey |date=1976 |publisher=HMSO |location=Edinburgh}} *{{Cite book |last1=MacGregor |first1=Malcolm |title=Geological Excursion Guide to the Assynt District of Sutherland |url= https://archive.org/details/macgregorphemist0000macg/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater |url-access= registration |last2=Phemister |first2=James |date=1979 |publisher=Edinburgh Geological Society |location=Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-904440-03-4 }}

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links ==

*{{Internet Archive author |sname= J. Phemister}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phemister, James}} Category:1893 births Category:1986 deaths Category:People from Govan Category:20th-century British geologists Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Royal Garrison Artillery soldiers Category:Military personnel from Glasgow

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