Oliver Meredith Boone Bulman (20 May 1902 – 18 February 1974) 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, ...

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

. He was

Woodwardian Professor of Geology The Woodwardian Professor of Geology is a professorship held in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. It was founded by John Woodward in 1728 under the title of Professor of Fossils. Woodward's will left to the University ...

at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Early life

Oliver Bulman was born in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

to artist Henry Herbert Bulman and his wife Beatrice Elizabeth Boone. He was the second of three children.

Education

Bulman went to

Battersea Grammar School Battersea Grammar School was a Voluntary-Controlled Secondary Grammar School in South London. It was established in Battersea in 1875 by the Sir Walter St John Trust and moved to larger premises in Streatham in 1936. The school closed when it ...

in 1910, but wishing to study geology, which the school did not teach, he became an evening, and later day, student at

Chelsea Polytechnic Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educati ...

. He gained a London University scholarship in 1920 and went to

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

to study geology and zoology. He graduated with a first class BSc in geology in 1923. Bulman went on to a PhD degree jointly with James Stubblefield on the lower

Palaeozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and '' ...

of the

Wrekin The Wrekin is a hill in east Shropshire, England. It is located some five miles (8 km) west of Telford, on the border between the unitary authorities of Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. Rising above the Shropshire Plain to a height of 4 ...

district, of

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

in 1926. Awarded a senior studentship, he worked for a year on

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

amphibians with

Walter Frederick Whittard Walter Frederick Whittard (1902–1966) was professor of geology at the University of Bristol. Awards and honours Whittard received the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London in 1965 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society ...

and for two years at

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Sidney Sussex College (referred to informally as "Sidney") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wife ...

, where he studied dendroid graptolites under Gertrude Lilian Elles. Work on the

Palaeontographical Society The Palaeontographical Society is a learned society, established in 1847, and is the oldest extant Society devoted to the advancement of palaeontological knowledge. The Society publishes monographs that further its primary purpose, which is to pro ...

's monograph ''British Dendroid Graptolites'' (1927 and 1928) earned him a Cambridge PhD degree in 1928. He then worked as demonstrator at Imperial College and at Cambridge. He became

reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

palaeozoology Palaeozoology, also spelled as Paleozoology (Greek: παλαιόν, ''palaeon'' "old" and ζῷον, ''zoon'' "animal"), is the branch of paleontology, paleobiology, or zoology dealing with the recovery and identification of multicellular anima ...

in 1944 and

in 1955.

Honours

Bulman was elected an FRS in 1940 and was president of the geology section of the

British Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

, the

Palaeontological Association The Palaeontological Association (PalAss for short) is a charitable organisation based in the UK founded in 1957 for the promotion of the study of palaeontology and allied sciences. Publications The Association publishes two main journals: ' ...

(1960–62), the

Geological Society 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 ...

(1962–64), and the

(1971–74). The Geological Society awarded him the

Lyell Medal The Lyell Medal is a prestigious annual scientific medal given by the Geological Society of London, equal in status to the Murchison Medal. This medal is awarded based on one Earth Scientist's exceptional contribution of research to the scientific ...

in 1953.

Private life

In 1938 he married Marguerite Fearnsides, daughter of William Fearnsides, the professor of geology at Sheffield. They had a son and three daughters. He died at home in Cambridge in 1974, and was cremated.

References

Fellows of the Royal Society 1902 births 1974 deaths Lyell Medal winners People educated at Battersea Grammar School British palaeontologists Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Woodwardian Professors of Geology {{palaeontologist-stub