President

The President’s Jewel

Each year a person of standing in the county is invited to be Honorary President of The Devonshire Association.

A president’s year of office commences at the Annual General Meeting (held as part of the Annual DA Conference). The outgoing President chairs the AGM and invests the incoming President with the silver-and-enamel ‘President’s Jewel’, given to the Association in 1935 by Lady Radford. The new President then gives a talk on a Devon subject of his or her choosing, which is normally published as a keynote address in the forthcoming Transactions.

The President also conceives and organises the President’s one-day symposium assisted by the Executive Committee.

Current President 2021-22

Dr Robin Wootton BSc, PhD, FLS, Hon FRES.

Robin Wootton taught biological sciences at Exeter University for four decades and is still an Honorary Research Fellow. A zoologist, entomologist, biomechanicist and occasional palaeontologist, he is an international authority on the mechanics and evolution of insect flight, now a hot topic in the development of insect-sized micro air vehicles. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, having been its West Region Secretary, a Council member and a Vice President. He has also been President of the Amateur Entomologists Society. Locally, he has been a member the Board of Management of the St Loyes Foundation, and has long been active in the Devon and Exeter Institution, serving on the Executive and as a library volunteer.

Robin joined the Devonshire Association in the mid 1960s, encouraged by his Head of Department, who had co-founded the Entomology Section two decades earlier. He has served as the Section’s chairman and its secretary and also as chairman of the Literature and Art Section. He was the Association’s chairman from 2008 to 2013, in that time founding the Music Section and facilitating the foundation of the Industrial Archaeology Section. He has organised DA exhibitions on insect photography and Devon artists, and initiated the 2017 celebrations of historical and cultural links between Devon and Newfoundland. He has a keen amateur interest in the history of biology, and particularly in how Devonians, including prominent early DA members, reacted to the heretical scientific discoveries of the 19th century.

He is married to Pamela, equally active in the DA over many years and recently appointed as an Honorary Life Member. They have a son, a daughter and five grandchildren.

Coming President 2022–23

Professor John Mather PhD, DSc, FGS, CGeol

Born and raised in Lincolnshire, where he attended the local Grammar School, John Mather read geology at Liverpool University before joining the Geological Survey in 1966. Following assignments overseas, exploring for groundwater on small islands in the West Indies and Pacific, he became involved in waste management, eventually leading major government-funded research programmes on the disposal of hazardous and radioactive wastes. In 1990 he left his position as an assistant director in the Survey to become Lyell Professor at Royal Holloway University of London, teaching and running a research group investigating groundwater pollution. Awards have included the Whitaker Medal and Distinguished Service Award of the Geological Society, where he has served as a council member and vice-president. Research in Romania has led to his appointment as a Fellow and Honorary Professor at the University of Bucharest. He has been chairman of the British Chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists, an advisor to the House of Commons Environment Committee and consultant to a number of national and international agencies on aspects of waste management.

Retirement in 2002 as Emeritus Professor, brought a move to Devon, where he quickly joined The Devonshire Association, becoming chairman of the Geology Section, before joining the Executive Committee, where he served as vice-chairman and also chaired the organising committee of the 2017 celebrations of the historical links between Devon and Newfoundland. He is totally committed to his adopted county and is a member of the Devon Archaeological Society, the Devon and Exeter Institution, Devon Artists’ Network and the Westcountry Potters’ Association.

He lives on the northern edge of Dartmoor with his wife Dr Jenny Bennett who is also an active DA member. He has two sons, the youngest of whom has recently moved with his family to live in Devon. He continues to write articles on the history of hydrogeology and the geology of Devon and its geologists and, in any spare time, throws functional stoneware pottery in a shed in his back garden!

Former Presidents

Some details of our most recent presidents are here.

List of all our Presidents

Including the locations of the AGMs at which they were inaugurated.