Dr Colin A. Fothergill (Earth Science and Engineering 1948, PhD 1951)

Provided by Mr Simon Fothergill

Colin was an undergraduate student at The Royal School of Mines from 1945 to 1948 and graduated with a first class honours degree in oil technology.  After working as a staff geologist with the Kuwait Oil Company he returned to Imperial College in 1954 to carry out research on the sedimentology of reservoir rocks in Venezuela. 

At the same time he was appointed lecturer at the Royal School of Mines a position he held for the next 16 years.  In the same year he was also awarded a PHD.

He combined his teaching duties with the development of a consulting practice with particular emphasis on UK exploration offshore.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Colin’s teaching career was the annual Easter field trips based first at Osmington Mills in Dorset and later in Weymouth.  He particularly enjoyed his interaction with students and in the words of one of his students, he was a popular and highly respected lecturer and petroleum geologist.

From 1964 to 1971 he acted as exploration advisor and manager to Place Gas and Oil Company of Canada in their UK offshore interests and undertook consulting assignments in the North Sea, the Far East and Trinidad.

In 1971 he was appointed chief geologist for Tricentrol with responsibility for establishing a geological department and the development of the Company’s exploration activities worldwide, with particular emphasis on UK offshore exploration and development.

In 1978 he was appointed a director of Tricentrol North Sea Limited and Tricentrol Thistle Development Limited.

He returned to consulting work in 1980 and from 1981 to 1987 was exploration consultant for Keplinger McCord-Lewis (UK) Limited.

In latter years he was concerned particularly with petroleum exploration onshore UK and was oil and gas advisor to the East Sussex County Council until his retirement in 1990.

Colin published a number of papers on oil prospects in the UK continental shelf and on the East Atlantic continental margin.  In 1969 he was elected to the Council of the Institute of Petroleum for three years and in 1970 was chairman of the PESGB.

He was a Fellow and former member of the Council of the Geological Society and in 1981 was presented with the Award of Council of the Institute of Petroleum in London.

He married his wife Margaret in 1955 and has two sons, Mark and Simon.  Margaret sadly died in 1972 and Colin did not remarry.

Colin will be missed by both friends and family to whom he was a loving and caring person and also professionally by those with whom he worked throughout a long and successful career.