Field trips and lifelong friendships
Paul Whincup (BSc Hons 1962) graduated in Geology as one of an honours class of three. The trio bonded on their first day in Regs together and remained lifelong friends. He remembers their four years at St Andrews and reunions beyond.
I came to St Andrews from Bradford Grammar School in 1958 to study Chemistry. I took first-year Geology and the rest, as they say, is history.
There were just three of us in the 1962 honours class – myself, Martin Lowe and Ian Forgan. We met in Regs on our first day at St Andrews. I shared a small room with Martin, in which he practised his bagpipes every day, and Ian was next door.
The University years
All three of us were very much involved in student activities including the Student Union, the Student Representative Council (SRC), the Kate Kennedy Club, and rugby. I achieved an Athletics Blue and played in the first XV, while Martin was the Scottish universities bagpipe champion.
We were also very much involved in the very boisterous and successful rectorial elections of Lord Boothby, the Conservative politician, and the novelist and scientist C.P. Snow.
Three was a sizeable cohort for the time – Geology wasn’t the popular subject it is now. The 1961 honours class had only two members, including David Peacock, later Distinguished Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton. Likewise, the class of 1963 had just two graduates, including Fergus Gibb, Emeritus Professor at the University of Sheffield.
Post-graduation adventures
There were very few opportunities for Geology graduates then outside academia or the civil service, which explains why both Martin and Ian chose to follow different career paths.
Martin joined the British Council after completing his PhD on the Trias of the Western Highlands and Hebrides, very much influenced by our first memorable field trip together to Raasay. He subsequently became Secretary of the University of Strathclyde, then of St Andrews and Edinburgh universities. He was honorary piper to Sir Menzies Campbell, Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, for which he received an annual stipend of a bottle of malt whisky.
Upon graduation Ian was sent by Shell directly to the London School of Economics (LSE) where he had a highly successful commercial career.
I was the only one of the three to follow a pathway in geology. I migrated to Australia in 1963 and joined the Geological Survey of Western Australia, where I trained as a hydrogeologist. After seven years of exploration – often in remote locations – I started my own company and later held senior positions in two NYSE listed companies.
Over the years, my work – which I prefer to call adventures – has taken me to more than 50 countries. I’m delighted to say that I am still practising at the age of 85 and am employed as a consultant in addition to pro bono work. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, I have developed an interest in the history of science, too, and have 10 publications to date.
Continued connections
Martin, Ian and I spent four happy years together in Regs and remained lifelong friends. We had a 30-year reunion in 1992, which was marked by a visit to Hutton’s Unconformity on the Isle of Arran – one of the most historically important geological outcrops in the world. We were finalising our 50-year reunion when events unfortunately intervened and, sadly, both Ian and Martin departed prematurely.
My time at St Andrews was both wonderful and unforgettable, and I look back with great fondness on my student days.