The founding meeting of the BSRG was organised by Percival (Perce) Allen and held in Reading on 16th-17th November 1962, to celebrate the opening of that university’s new Sedimentology Research Laboratory. A key component of this first meeting was the presentation of “research work in progress” by research students and staff from several British Universities, the Institute of Geological Sciences (now the British Geological Survey), the National Coal Board and major oil and quarry companies. The lively and informal discussion generated by these presentations provided the impetus for similar meetings on an annual basis, and so the BSRG AGM was born.

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The ethos of BSRG is perhaps best encapsulated by Perce Allen’s vision in 1962 for future annual meetings. They would need to be run by a simple organisation that “depended for life on its own enthusiasm”. The new organisation should be independent from other geological bodies “to avoid ossification (and to be free to die if enthusiasm waned)”. “Emphasis should be on the younger worker and on informality”. From its inception, BSRG has been organised with a light touch. However, as our organisation grew, an affiliation to the Geological Society of London was set up in 1973 under the stewardship of Harold Reading. In addition, BSRG is closely linked to the International Association of Sedimentologists (IAS), for which Perce Allen and Harold Reading are also key figures in its development, and to other sedimentary geology societies.

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BSRG grew steadily through the 1960s and early 1970s, and expanded dramatically during the late 1970s and 1980s in response to the increasing influence of sedimentology in exploring for and developing hydrocarbon resources in the North Sea. However, the interests of BSRG members have always been broad, in line with our original ethos. This diversity is well represented in the keynote reviews presented at the 21st BSRG AGM (1982), held in Liverpool, and later published as Geological Society of London Special Publication 18 edited by Pat Brenchley and Brian Williams.

 

Our organisation has flourished during the 1990s and 2000s, and the BSRG AGM regularly attracts participants from outside the UK, as well as many university researchers and a scattering of industry sedimentologists working within the UK. Research groups from Norway, Ireland and Germany have been particularly strongly represented. BSRG members still work on a wide range of pure and applied sedimentological research, much of which is increasingly multidisciplinary in scope. We also still aim to foster the development of young sedimentologists, and the BSRG AGM is the venue at which many PhD students present their research results for the first time.

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Acknowledgements
This summary borrows liberally from the sources listed below, and from the memories and archives of John Collinson, John Graham, Gilbert Kelling, Nick McCave, Clive Nicholas, Tim Palmer, Brian Rosen and Maurice Tucker – many thanks for your help!

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• Brenchley, P.J. & Williams, B.P.J. 1985. Preface. In: Geological Society of London, Special Publication 18, p. 1-3

• Parker, A. 2008. Obituary for Percival Allen, 1917-2008

• Reading, H.G. (ed.) 1973. International Association of Sedimentologists, Newsletter #13 (February 1973)