Peter A. Standing (1947-2019)

Peter Standing died back in November.

He started caving with the Gloucester SS in the Forest of Dean and went on to the University of Bristol where he was prominent in the UBSS explorations of the Little Neath River Cave. He was a doctor when he joined the Ghar Parau expedition, and practiced as a GP in Bury until retiring to Morecambe Bay, whence he took a new degree in Geography at Lancaster University, studied the area's karst and glacial erratics, joined the Red Rose CPC, and was very active in promoting interest in the area: the latest edition of Arnside and Silverdale AONB Landscape Trust's magazine, Keer to Kent, has an appreciation.

He was also a prominent climber and fellwalker  [https://rucksackclub.org/2019/11/25/peter-standing/] and covered most of Britain, some idea of which is given by his photos on https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/5210 which tie in with a rather esoteric interest in the OS National Grid [ http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/In-Search-of-OV0000 ]. He gave many talks, such as https://www.evensi.uk/talk-50-shades-grey-limesto?/247114985 etc...

Amongst his lesser known achievements is the inadvertent introduction of Dick Willis to caving...

Thanks for posting that Martin; I don't think I ever met him but I certainly knew of him because I remember all the excitement at my own club when I was just a child and the Ghar Parau expedition preparations were in full swing.

Your post includes these words:

" . . . until retiring to Morecambe Bay, whence he took a new degree in Geography at Lancaster University, studied the area's karst and glacial erratics, joined the Red Rose CPC, and was very active in promoting interest in the area".

Can anyone point us at any useful written accounts by Peter of his studies of the Morecambe Bay karst?

Peter Standing on the Morecambe Bay Karst

Is this what your are looking for?

https://www.arnsidesilverdaleaonb.org.uk/uploads/2016/04/rocks_soils.pdf

I knew Peter from his UBSS days.  RIP Peter.

Try this:
Standing P, 2011. The emplacement of erratics in grikes;a study of the limestone pavements of the Arnside and Silverdale AONB (abstract). Cave and Karst Science , 38, 102

Pete Standing's list of medical equipment for Ghar Parau was helpful to me when sorting out material for the Iran '77 trip. He was an inveterate traveler.  I remember him lecturing at a CRO meeting some years ago with his numerous superb slides taken all over the world.  He wrote periodically for medical magazines as well. It was a bit strange to find he had retired to Arnside. My late grandfather, a pathologist, similarly retired to Arnside and indirectly inspired me to go caving. We spent some time searching out the cave on Arnside Knott when I started and visited several others in the area.

Pitlamp said:

Thanks for posting that Martin; I don't think I ever met him but I certainly knew of him because I remember all the excitement at my own club when I was just a child and the Ghar Parau expedition preparations were in full swing.

Your post includes these words:

" . . . until retiring to Morecambe Bay, whence he took a new degree in Geography at Lancaster University, studied the area's karst and glacial erratics, joined the Red Rose CPC, and was very active in promoting interest in the area".

Can anyone point us at any useful written accounts by Peter of his studies of the Morecambe Bay karst?

Click to expand...

I met him once or twice and have a PDF copy of his master's dissertation if it's of any interest. He also produced a number of Arnside and Silverdale AONB and Landscape Trust publications e.g.
https://shop.landscapetrust.org.uk/product-category/booklets/geology/

Actually, it just came to mind IIRC, he was on the BCRA field meeting to Whitbarrow in 2015.

TheBitterEnd said:

Actually, it just came to mind IIRC, he was on the BCRA field meeting to Whitbarrow in 2015.

Click to expand...

Ah - in that case, I must have met him then! That was a good day out, led by Mr Murphy.

(I'll send you a PM separately.)

I have a photo of him somewhere if I can dig it out.

I would be grateful if TheBitterEnd could get in touch. I have been trying to locate a copy of Standings MSc thesis. p.a.carling@soton.ac.uk

Just to update everyone I have been in touch with @scoutgreen who may want to redact his email address down now to avoid spam