OBITUARY$$$$BENTLEY EDWIN FURMSTON 1931-2007

摘要

Bentley Edwin Furmston, known as Ed to his world-wide circle of friends and colleagues, has died suddenly of an embolism at his home near Romsey on his 76th birthday. He spent virtually his whole career in the Directorate of Colonial (later Overseas) Surveys and rose to become its last Director before the Thatcher Government closed it down in 1985. Ed was born on 7th October 1931, the son of the vicar of Plumbland near Aspatria and grew up in sight of the Lakeland fells. At Manchester University, where he studied mathematics and took first class honours, he spent much of his spare time rock climbing with friends. With his love of the outdoors and his gifted mathematical mind, the job of field surveyor with the Directorate of Colonial Surveys was made for him. He took to the work with huge enthusiasm - even though his first posting in 1953 was to the Gambia where he was condemned to the rather tedious and slow process of precise traversing without a hill in sight.