Stephen Robert Nockolds, FRS (10 May 1909 – 7 February 1990) was a geochemist, petrologist and winner of the

Murchison Medal The Murchison Medal is an academic award established by Roderick Murchison, who died in 1871. First awarded in 1873, it is normally given to people who have made a significant contribution to geology by means of a substantial body of research an ...

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 ...

. Robert Nockolds was born at

St Columb Major St Columb Major is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as ''St Columb'', it is approximately southwest of Wadebridge and east of Newquay Ordnance Survey: Landran ...

, Cornwall, the son of Dr Stephen Nockolds, a surgeon of

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

, and his wife Hilda Tomlinson. He was educated at

Ascham St Vincent's School Ascham St Vincent's School was an England, English Preparatory school (UK), preparatory school for boys at Eastbourne, East Sussex. Like other preparatory schools, its purpose was to train pupils to do well enough in the examinations (usually ...

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

and at

Felsted School Felsted School is a co-educational independent school, independent boarding school, boarding and Day school, day school, situated in Felsted in Essex, England. It is in the British Public school (UK), public school tradition, and was founded i ...

where his interest in rocks already manifested itself. He then went to

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

and then took a PhD at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

. He became a Fellow of Trinity College, and lectured in petrology at Cambridge. In 1957 he became Reader in Geochemistry at Cambridge, and Emeritus Reader. In 1959 he became a

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

, and was also an Honorary Fellow of the

Geological Society of India The Geological Society of India is based in Bangalore, India. Its flagship product is the ''Journal of the Geological Society of India (JGSI)''. Establishment As declared in the ''JGSI'', the society was established on May 28, 1958, to promote t ...

. In 1972 he retired from Cambridge and was awarded the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society. He published a leading work on petrology and a large number of papers in various journals as shown below. In 1932 he married Hilda Jackson (1909–1976) and subsequently after she died in 1976 he married Patricia Horsley (1923 – 10 July 2013) He was known to his friends as Nocky or Bob and whilst he didn't have children of his own he was affectionately embraced by Patricia's large family.

Works

*Nockolds, S. R. Petrology for Students (1978) *Nockolds, S. R. 1933 Some theoretical aspects of Contamination in Acid Magmas. Journ. Geol. xii, p. 563. *Nockolds, S. R. 1934. The production of normal Rock Types by Contamination and their bearing on Petrogenesis. Geol. Mag. lxxi, p. 31. *Nockolds, S. R. 1934. The contaminated tonalites of Loch Awe, Argyll. Q.J.G.S. xc, p. 302. *Nockolds, S. R. 1935. Contributions to the Petrology of Barnavave, Carlingford, I.F.S. 1, The Junction Hybrids. Geol. Mag. lxxii, p. 289. *Nockolds, S. R. 1940, Petrology of rocks from Queen Mary Land. Australasian Antarctic Exped. 1911–14. Sci. Repts. ser. A, 4, Geol. pt. 2, 15–86. *Nockolds, S. R. 1941. The Garabal Hill-Glen Fyne igneous complex. Q. J. geol. Soc. Lond., 96, 451–511. *Nockolds, S. R. & Mitchell, R. L. 1946. The geochemistry of some Caledonian plutonic rocks: a study in the relationship between the major and trace elements of igneous rocks and their minerals. Trans. R. Soc. Edinb., 61, 533–575. *Tilley C E & Nockolds S R dited byPart II Proceedings of Section a : Problems of Geochemistry UK 1950. Paper Covers . International Geological Congress. Report of the Eighteenth Session Great Britain 1948. *Nockolds, S. R. & Allen, R. 1953. The geochemistry of some igneous rock series. Geochim & Cosmochim Acta, 4, 105–42. *Nockolds, S. R. & Allen, R. 1954. The geochemistry of some igneous rock series ––II. Geochim & Cosmochim Acta, 5, 245–85. *Nockolds, S. R. & Allen, R. 1956. The geochemistry of some igneous rock series––III. Geochim & Cosmochim Acta, 9, 34–77. *Hutton, C. O. & Nockolds, S. R. 1978. The petrology of Nevis, Leeward Islands, West Indies. Institute of Geological Sciences, Overseas Geology and Mineral Resources 52:1–31.

References

1909 births 1990 deaths People from St Columb Major Scientists from Brighton People educated at Felsted School Alumni of the University of Manchester Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge English geochemists Fellows of the Royal Society {{geologist-stub