Ben Peach

Who was Ben Peach?

Benjamin Neeve Peach, FRS was a British geologist.

He was born at Gorran Haven in Cornwall to Charles William Peach, an amateur British naturalist and geologist. Ben was educated at the Royal School of Mines in London and then joined the Geological Survey in 1862 as a geologist, moving to the Scottish branch in 1867. He is best remembered for his work on the Northwest Highlands and Southern Uplands with his friend and colleague John Horne, where they resolved the long-running debate on the geological formation of the Highlands.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1892. The citation on his candidacy form read: "District Surveyor of the Geological Survey of Scotland. Past President of the Physical Society of Edinburgh. Recipient of the Wollaston Donation Fund of the Geological Society in 1887. For thirty years actively engaged on the Geological survey, during which time he has mapped many of the most complicated districts of Scotland. Has charge of the surveying of the NW Highlands, and has taken the leading part in unravelling the remarkable structural complications of that region. Author of various papers on palaeontological subjects: - 'On some New Crustaceans from the Lower Carboniferous Rocks of Eskale and Liddesdale'; 'On some new species of Fossil Scorpions from the Carboniferous Rocks of Scotland'; 'Further Researches among the Crustacea and Arachnida of the Carboniferous Rocks of the Scottish Border'; 'On some Fossil Myriapods from the Lower Old Red Sandstone of Forfarshire. Joint author with Mr J Horne of many papers on stratigraphical and physical geology, including : - 'The Glaciation of the Shetland Isles'; 'The Glaciation of the Orkney Islands'; 'The Old Red Sandstone of Shetland'; 'The Glaciation of Caithness; 'Report on the Geology of the North-West of Sutherland'; 'The Old Red Sandstone Volcanic Rocks of Shetland'; 'Report on the Recent Work of the Geological Survey in the North-West Highlands of Scotland, based on the Field Maps of B N Peach, J Horne, W Gunn, C T Clough, L Hinxman, and H M Cadell'. "