Sir George Edward Raven Deacon

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FRS FRSE (21 March 1906 – 16 November 1984) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

oceanographer Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...

and

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

Life

He was born in Leicester, the son of George Raven Deacon and his wife Emma (née Drinkwater). He was educated (1919–24) at the Newarke School, Leicester and then the City of Leicester Boys' School. He went as a King's scholar to King's College London (1924–27) where he was awarded a first-class honours degree in chemistry in 1926 and a diploma of education in 1927. His first post was as lecturer in chemistry and mathematics at Rochdale Technical School. In 1927 he was offered a place as a chemist on the Discovery Antarctic survey and sailed on Christmas Eve on the ''RRS William Scoresby'', transferring in 1928 to the larger ''Discovery II''. In 1937 he was awarded a

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

by the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

for this work. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in 1944. His application citation read: ''"Since 1927 he has taken physical observations from HM Research Ship "Discovery II" and other vessels in all sections of the Antarctic Ocean, and has analysed and studied these observations. In particular he has described the movements, horizontal and vertical, of the water between the Antarctic Continent and the northern limits of the Southern Ocean, defining Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic areas which are proving significant in the study of the distribution of plankton and of free-swimming and bottom-living animals. He has shown that practically all the bottom water of the Antarctic origin in all the oceans is formed in the Weddell Sea."'' During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he initially worked on

HMS Osprey, Portland HMS ''Osprey'' was an anti-submarine training establishment located at the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. It was active between 1924 and 1941, and again from 1946 to 1999. The helicopter station RNAS Portland formed part of the establishmen ...

involved in anti-submarine warfare. This was decommissioned in 1941. He afterwards worked in Fairlie, Scotland, doing research on

ASDIC Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects on ...

for the Admiralty. In 1944 he joined the Admiralty Research Laboratory in Teddington, Middlesex to study ocean waves. In 1949 he was appointed as the first Director of the new UK National Institute of Oceanography which was later absorbed into the Natural Environment Research Council as the

National Oceanography Centre The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is a marine science research and technology institution based on two sites in Southampton and Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is the UK’s largest institution for integrated sea level science, coastal and ...

, now

UKRI UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom that directs research and innovation funding, funded through the science budget of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Str ...

. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1957. His proposers were James Ritchie, John Barclay Tait,

Cyril Edward Lucas Sir Cyril Edward Lucas (30 July 1909 – 14 January 2002) was a British marine biologist. He was Director of Fisheries Research in Scotland for 22 years. He was an expert on plankton and helped to develop the Continuous Plankton Recorder in 1931. ...

, and

Vero Wynne-Edwards Vero Copner Wynne-Edwards, CBE, FRS, FRSE (4 July 1906 – 5 January 1997) was an English zoologist. He was best known for his advocacy of group selection, the theory that natural selection acts at the level of the group. Life He was born ...

. He was awarded CBE in 1964 and knighted in 1977. He retired in 1971 and died in 1984 at his home in Milford,Surrey.

Family

He married Elsa Jeffries (d.1966) in 1940.

Publications

*''The Antarctic Circumpolar Ocean'' (1984)

References

External links

Catalogue of personal papers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deacon, George 1906 births 1984 deaths People educated at City of Leicester Boys' Grammar School Alumni of King's College London Fellows of King's College London Fellows of the Royal Society Royal Medal winners English oceanographers English chemists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People from Leicester Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences