rhychydwr1
Active member
William Stanton, MBE, speleologist, demographer and polemicist, was born on May 25, 1930. He died on January 30, 2010, aged 79
I knew William, or Willie as we all knew him, in the good old days, and I think that before we got to know him, we were rather in awe of him as he was the only one amongst us with a PhD.
I remember particularly, his tall, sparse figure striding up Cheddar Gorge through all weathers, towards Reservoir Hole, which was a particular project of his. I was digging it with him from 1965 to 1971, alas to little avail. Progress was slow, not helped by the many loose boulders, however, inventive as ever Willie decided on a radical stabilizing method, he poured concrete over them to hold them in place! Such was his dedication that he added over 500 meters to what was a very short cave to begin with,
Once I moved to Wales in 1976, we lost touch, but I am proud to have known such a knowledgeable and charming man. The world of speleology is all the poorer by his passing.
In his professional career Willie Stanton was a much respected speleologist, noted for his unrivalled expertise on the geology of the Mendip Hills, for his contribution to the protection of groundwater resources, and for his lifelong dedication to speleology (the study of caves).
He also earned a degree of notoriety for his outspoken championing of Malthusian ideas about euthanasia, population and immigration control. That notoriety was compounded in 2009 when he entered into a suicide pact with his wife ? she died, but he survived.
William Iredale Stanton was born in Bristol in 1930 to Quaker parents. He was brought up in Street, Somerset, and started exploring the county?s caves as a boy. At school he captained the rugby team, and at university, as a geology student, he took up mountaineering.
He met his future wife, Angela, an undergraduate, while doing his DPhil at Imperial College London. After marrying, the couple spent years abroad, including time in Angola, where they were caught up in the liberation struggle. Stanton worked for 20 years for mining companies in Africa and elsewhere, and another 20 years as consulting geologist to Wessex Water and the Bristol Avon River Authority. This work complemented his fascination with the Mendip caves, about which he wrote two valued guides. His first Mendip dig, opening access to hitherto unknown chambers and cave systems, was in Rowberrow Cavern in 1942. He went on to undertake digs in 46 caves and mines, some of the most important being on an epic scale and continuing over 20 years. Some digs necessitated novel techniques to overcome their particular difficulties. Stanton?s innovations included use of liquid cement grout to stabilise rocks around the next area to be excavated. He built drystone walling to protect cave scenery from blast, and minimised the mud flying about by using shot-hole blasting. He turned the caves? running water into an aid rather than a hindrance to excavation by means of ?flopjak? buckets which would tip over when filled, to wash away spoil and widen access even while the diggers were not on site.
Stanton?s respectful, systematic and scientific approach was in marked contrast to the more brutal techniques adopted by other cave diggers; so much so that cavers spoke of successfully exposed and user-friendly caverns being ?stantonised?. Strangely for an avowed atheist, Stanton was nicknamed ?the High Priest? among cavers. He was appointed MBE in 1993.
As well as writing cave guides, archaeological studies and scientific papers, Stanton was also an energetic polemicist, regularly writing to scientific journals, magazines and newspapers, local and national. He was a lifelong, but unsentimental, nature lover and a trustee of Somerset Wildlife Trust until a letter in favour of culling badgers contributed to a parting of the ways.
New Scientist was for years a particular target of his letter writing; although its editors had rejected his missives for the past two decades they did accept a review from him of an early 20th-century caver?s diaries.
A sympathiser at the Optimum Population Trust suggested that Stanton deserved a prize for his ?epic letter-writing effort? of 20 closely argued but unpublished letters to the magazine from 1986 onwards ?about the terrible consequences of ever worsening human overpopulation?.
Undeterred by rejection and ever resourceful, Stanton in 2002 produced his chef d?oeuvre, The Rapid Growth of Human Population 1750-2000, a demographic study of sustainability.
The book was presented in novel fashion, with the top half of its pages devoted to 235 graphs and commentary on each independent nation?s population growth statistics and future prospects, with similar but separate treatment for 49 geographic regions. The bottom halves were given to the main text of his persuasively gloomy argument: that the only way to stop global warming, massive extinction of species and the onset of anarchy would be to drastically reduce the human population.
He argued that resources, including fossil fuels, are in terminal decline and that the British population, for example, must shrink from about 60 million to only 2 million by 2150. He did not flinch from suggesting how to achieve this reduction: allowing women only one child each; banning immigration; putting new arrivals and criminals on chain gangs; and adopting compulsory euthanasia.
Although he was found to be suffering from bone cancer four years ago, Stanton continued to visit caves until 18 months ago. His letter writing continued until last September. In October a neighbour discovered him in distress with a helium canister and his wife Angela dead beside him. She was 74 and thought to be in good health. Stanton, who was terminally ill with cancer, explained that she had suggested their suicide pact, and only interruption had prevented him from taking his own life.
?What we did was entirely reasonable for two rational, non-religious people who had reached the end of their lives, which they had enjoyed so much,? he said.
I knew William, or Willie as we all knew him, in the good old days, and I think that before we got to know him, we were rather in awe of him as he was the only one amongst us with a PhD.
I remember particularly, his tall, sparse figure striding up Cheddar Gorge through all weathers, towards Reservoir Hole, which was a particular project of his. I was digging it with him from 1965 to 1971, alas to little avail. Progress was slow, not helped by the many loose boulders, however, inventive as ever Willie decided on a radical stabilizing method, he poured concrete over them to hold them in place! Such was his dedication that he added over 500 meters to what was a very short cave to begin with,
Once I moved to Wales in 1976, we lost touch, but I am proud to have known such a knowledgeable and charming man. The world of speleology is all the poorer by his passing.
In his professional career Willie Stanton was a much respected speleologist, noted for his unrivalled expertise on the geology of the Mendip Hills, for his contribution to the protection of groundwater resources, and for his lifelong dedication to speleology (the study of caves).
He also earned a degree of notoriety for his outspoken championing of Malthusian ideas about euthanasia, population and immigration control. That notoriety was compounded in 2009 when he entered into a suicide pact with his wife ? she died, but he survived.
William Iredale Stanton was born in Bristol in 1930 to Quaker parents. He was brought up in Street, Somerset, and started exploring the county?s caves as a boy. At school he captained the rugby team, and at university, as a geology student, he took up mountaineering.
He met his future wife, Angela, an undergraduate, while doing his DPhil at Imperial College London. After marrying, the couple spent years abroad, including time in Angola, where they were caught up in the liberation struggle. Stanton worked for 20 years for mining companies in Africa and elsewhere, and another 20 years as consulting geologist to Wessex Water and the Bristol Avon River Authority. This work complemented his fascination with the Mendip caves, about which he wrote two valued guides. His first Mendip dig, opening access to hitherto unknown chambers and cave systems, was in Rowberrow Cavern in 1942. He went on to undertake digs in 46 caves and mines, some of the most important being on an epic scale and continuing over 20 years. Some digs necessitated novel techniques to overcome their particular difficulties. Stanton?s innovations included use of liquid cement grout to stabilise rocks around the next area to be excavated. He built drystone walling to protect cave scenery from blast, and minimised the mud flying about by using shot-hole blasting. He turned the caves? running water into an aid rather than a hindrance to excavation by means of ?flopjak? buckets which would tip over when filled, to wash away spoil and widen access even while the diggers were not on site.
Stanton?s respectful, systematic and scientific approach was in marked contrast to the more brutal techniques adopted by other cave diggers; so much so that cavers spoke of successfully exposed and user-friendly caverns being ?stantonised?. Strangely for an avowed atheist, Stanton was nicknamed ?the High Priest? among cavers. He was appointed MBE in 1993.
As well as writing cave guides, archaeological studies and scientific papers, Stanton was also an energetic polemicist, regularly writing to scientific journals, magazines and newspapers, local and national. He was a lifelong, but unsentimental, nature lover and a trustee of Somerset Wildlife Trust until a letter in favour of culling badgers contributed to a parting of the ways.
New Scientist was for years a particular target of his letter writing; although its editors had rejected his missives for the past two decades they did accept a review from him of an early 20th-century caver?s diaries.
A sympathiser at the Optimum Population Trust suggested that Stanton deserved a prize for his ?epic letter-writing effort? of 20 closely argued but unpublished letters to the magazine from 1986 onwards ?about the terrible consequences of ever worsening human overpopulation?.
Undeterred by rejection and ever resourceful, Stanton in 2002 produced his chef d?oeuvre, The Rapid Growth of Human Population 1750-2000, a demographic study of sustainability.
The book was presented in novel fashion, with the top half of its pages devoted to 235 graphs and commentary on each independent nation?s population growth statistics and future prospects, with similar but separate treatment for 49 geographic regions. The bottom halves were given to the main text of his persuasively gloomy argument: that the only way to stop global warming, massive extinction of species and the onset of anarchy would be to drastically reduce the human population.
He argued that resources, including fossil fuels, are in terminal decline and that the British population, for example, must shrink from about 60 million to only 2 million by 2150. He did not flinch from suggesting how to achieve this reduction: allowing women only one child each; banning immigration; putting new arrivals and criminals on chain gangs; and adopting compulsory euthanasia.
Although he was found to be suffering from bone cancer four years ago, Stanton continued to visit caves until 18 months ago. His letter writing continued until last September. In October a neighbour discovered him in distress with a helium canister and his wife Angela dead beside him. She was 74 and thought to be in good health. Stanton, who was terminally ill with cancer, explained that she had suggested their suicide pact, and only interruption had prevented him from taking his own life.
?What we did was entirely reasonable for two rational, non-religious people who had reached the end of their lives, which they had enjoyed so much,? he said.
