John Bicknell Auden (14 December 1903 – 21 January 1991) was an English

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

, older brother of the poet

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

, who worked for many years in India with the

Geological Survey of India The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is a scientific agency of India. It was founded in 1851, as a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Mines, one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey ...

and later with the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

. He studied the Himalayan strata, particularly the Krol Belt where he recognized rocks from the Peninsula thrusting north into the Himalayas. He also studied groundwater and was involved in studying the geology of many dam sites in India. Auden's Col is named after him.

Biography

Auden was born at 54

Bootham Bootham is a street in the city of York, in England, leading north out of the city centre. It is also the name of the small district surrounding the street. History The street runs along a ridge of slightly higher ground east of the River Ous ...

in York, the second son of

George Augustus Auden George Augustus Auden (27 August 1872 – 3 May 1957) was an English physician, professor of public health, school medical officer, and writer on archaeological subjects. Biography Auden was born at Horninglow, Burton-upon-Trent, the sixth ...

with Constance Rosalie née Bicknell (1869–1941) and was an older brother of the poet

. He was educated along with his younger brother Wystan at

St Edmund's School, Hindhead , established = 1874 , closed = , type = Independent prep and senior school(boarding and day) , religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = A. J. Walliker MA (Cantab.) , ...

, a Surrey prep school, after his father moved to teach public health at Birmingham. He excelled in French, English and the classics and being bespectacled earned the nickname of "dodo". He later studied at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...

(1917 to 1922), and geology at Christ's College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

receiving a BA in 1936 after which he joined the

, where he remained until he retired in the early 1950s. Like his brother he wrote poetry at college and was described as an extreme neurotic and suffered from depression in the early 1930s. He received an MA in 1930 and an Sc.D. in 1948.

Geology in India

Auden took an interest in the Vindhyan formations of the Himalayas and lectured on

glaciers A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

The Himalayan Club The Himalayan Club is an organization founded in India in 1928 along the lines of the Alpine Club. The stated mission of the organization was "to encourage and assist Himalayan travel and exploration, and to extend knowledge of the Himalaya and a ...

in 1936. His exploration and mapping (with three other climbers) of the high

Karakoram The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the ...

and Anghil region of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

was the subject of

Eric Shipton Eric Earle Shipton, CBE (1 August 1907 – 28 March 1977), was an English Himalayan mountaineer. Early years Shipton was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1907 where his father, a tea planter, died before he was three years old. When he was eigh ...

's ''Blank on the Map'' (1938). In 1929 he visited his younger brother Wystan in Berlin and talked to him about K2 which served as inspiration for a play, ''

The Ascent of F6 ''The Ascent of F6: A Tragedy in Two Acts'', by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, was the second and most successful play in the Auden-Isherwood collaboration, first published in 1936. It was a major contribution to English poetic drama in ...

''. One of Auden's early interests was in the Krol Belts. This early stratigraphy work in the mid 1930s on the Himalayas was however something he could not continue work on after moving into economic geology following the war. He noted significantly that "Aravalli strikes found locally in rock structures in the Garhwal Himalaya /.. suggests a northward extension of Peninsular rocks into the Himalaya." In 1940 he was elected president of the Geological Institute of

Presidency College, Calcutta Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata) is a second major public state aided research university located in College Street, Kolkata. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affili ...

. In 1937 Auden learned to pilot an aircraft and conducted an aerial survey of the Bijaigarh shales. In 1945–51, he was engaged in investigating all the major dam sites, hydro electric projects, irrigation works and water supply schemes of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He became an acclaimed expert on groundwater in the Kutch and Rajasthan region. The Geological Survey of India offered the position of a director to Auden in 1953 but he declined it on the grounds of health and also pointed out that it would be only right for an Indian to lead (who would be M.S. Krishnan) it. After retiring from the Geological Survey of India (he was the last European to be recruited into it and the last European to leave the organization) he joined the Sudan geological survey from 1953 for two years and for four years with the Burmah Oil Company.In 1960 he joined the

, where he worked until 1970. After retiring he lived in London, at

Thurloe Square Thurloe Square is a traditional garden square in South Kensington, London, England. There are private communal gardens in the centre of the square for use by the local residents. The Victoria and Albert Museum is close by to the north across ...

close to the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

and served for two years as vice-president of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. He was awarded the gold medal of the Asiatic Society in 1953 and the Darashaw Nosherwanji Wadia medal of the Indian National Science Academy in 1980.

Personal life

The milieu of Auden and his generation of explorers forms the central narrative of ''The Last Englishmen: Love, War, and the End of Empire'', a historical book by

Deborah Baker Deborah Baker is an American biographer and essayist. She is the author of ''A Blue Hand: The Beats in India'', a biography of Allen Ginsberg that focuses on his time in India and of ''In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding'', a finalist for the P ...

. Auden married twice, first to Margaret Marshall who was interested in psychology and initially a counsellor for Auden. She suggested that his depression would improve if he did not return to India. After the death of Margaret's husband, Douglas Marshall, she married John in 1930 and went to India. John found Margaret domineering, unfaithful and a spendthrift and they separated in January 1932, divorcing in October 1933. He married Sheila Bonnerjee, a granddaughter of a founding president of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee Womesh Chandra Bannerjee (or Umesh Chandra Banerjee by current English orthography of Bengali names; 29 December 1844 – 21 July 1906) was an Indian barrister. He was a co-founder and the first president of Indian National Congress. Born on 1 ...

, in 1940 and they had two daughters. The family lived in London and Calcutta where he resigned from the Saturday and Tollygunge clubs as his wife would not be admitted. He converted from Anglican to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

in 1951. He died at London on 21 January. According to his requests, he was cremated and a Mass was held on the 29th at Westminster Cathedral. Further to his request, his ashes were immersed in the Ganges at Rishikesh on 14 December 1991.

Publications

* Auden, J. B. (1933) "On the age of certain Himalayan granites". ''Records of Geological Survey of India'', 66(4), 461–471. * Auden, J. B. (1933). "Vindhyan sedimentation in the Son Valley, Mirzapur district". Office of the Geological survey of India. * Gilbert, L. B., & Auden, J. B. (1933). "Note on a Glacier In the Arwa valley. British Garhwal." ''Records of Geological Survey of India'', 66(3), 214–278. * Auden, J. B. (1934) "The geology of the Krol belt". ''Records of Geological Survey of India'', 67(4):357–454. * Auden, J. B. (1935) "Traverses in the Himalaya". ''Records of Geological Survey of India'', 69(2):123–167. * Auden, J. B. (1935). "The snout of the Biafo glacier in Baltistan". ''Records of Geological Survey of India'', 68(4), 400–413. * Auden, J. B., & Ghosh, A. M. N. (1935). "Preliminary Account of the Earthquake of the 15th January, 1934, in Bihar and Nepal". ''Records of the Geological Survey of India'', 68(2). * Auden, J.B. (1937). "Snout of the Gangotri glacier, Tehri Garhwal". ''Records of Geological Survey of India'', 72/2:135-140. * Auden, J.B. (1937) "The Structure of the Himalaya in Garhwal." ''Records of Geological Survey of India'' Vol. 71, pp. 407–433. * Shipton, E., Spender, M., & Auden, J. B. (1938). "The Shaksgam Expedition, 1937." ''Geographical Journal'', 313–336. * Auden, J. B. (1938). Résumé of geological results, Shaksgam Expedition, 1937. Himal. J, 10, 40–48. * Wadia, D. N., & Auden, J. B. (1939). Geology and structure of Northern India. Mem. Geol. Surv. India, 73, 118–137. * Dunn, J. A., Auden, J. B., & Ghosh, A. M. N. (1939). Earthquake effects. Memoir Geological Survey of India, 73, 27–48. * Auden, J. B. (1942). A Geological Investigation of Tunnel Alignments for the Jumna Hydro-Electric Scheme. * Auden, J. B. (1941). An excursion to Gangotri. Himalayan Journal, 8, 96–102. * Auden, J. B. (1942). Note on the Kalagarh Landslide-Mussoorie-Dehradun Motor Road. Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind, 77. * Auden, J. B. (1948). Notes on earthquakes in relation to Damodar Valley Projects. * Auden, J. B. (1949)
A geological discussion on the Satpura hypothesis and Garo-Rajmahal gap.
In Proc. Natl. Inst. Sci. of India (Vol. 15, p. 55). * Auden, J. B. (1949). Note on the earthquake tremors at Shahkot, Sheikhupura district, Punjab, of September 1943. Records Geol. Surv. India, 78, 135–140. * Auden, J. B. (1949). Note on the earthquake tremors at Shahkot, Sheikhupura district, Punjab, of September 1943. Records Geol. Surv. India, 78, 135–140. * Auden, J. B. (1950)
Some factors concerning the transport of sediments of rivers
In Proc. Natl. Inst. Sci. India (Vol. 16, No. 6). * Taylor, G. C Jr., and Auden, J. B. (1952) All-India exploratory well drilling programme and location of exploratory wells: India Geol. Survey rept., 13 * Auden, J. B. (1952). Some geological and chemical aspects of the Rajasthan salt problem. Bull. Nat. Inst. Sci. Ind, 1, 53–67. * Auden, J. B., & Saha, A. K. (1952). Geological notes on central Nepal. Records of the Geological survey of India, 82, 354–357. * Auden, J. B. (1954). Erosional patterns and fracture zones in Peninsular India. Geological Magazine, 91(02), 89–101. * Auden, J. B. (1959). Earthquakes in relation to the Damodar Valley Project. In Proc. Symp. Earthquake Engg (Vol. 1). * Auden, J. B. (1960). Note on gypsum near Lachhmanjhula and Sahasradhara, Uttar Pradesh. Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., 86 (2). * Auden, J. B. (1972). Review of the tectonic map of India published by ONGC. J. Geol. Soc. India, 13, 101–107. * Auden, J. B. (1972). Discussion of KG Cox, The Karroo volcanic cycle: Geol. Soc. London Jour, 128, 334. * Auden, J. B. (1972). Seismicity and reservoirs. Comments Earth Sci., Geophys, 2, 149–150. * Auden, J. B. (1975). Seismicity associated with the Koyna reservoir, Maharashtra. * Auden, J. B. (1981). India's former crustal neighbours. Indian National Science Academy. * Auden, J. B. (1999). Dykes in western India. A discussion of their relationships with the Deccan Traps. Memoirs of the Geological Society of India (2):277–318.

Biography

Geology in India

Personal life

Publications

References

Further reading