author
Clement Reid
1853–1916
A self-taught British geologist and palaeobotanist, he helped uncover how ancient plants and buried landscapes could reveal Britain’s deep past. His work on fossil floras, coastal deposits, and submerged forests made complex prehistoric change feel newly visible.
1 Audiobook
Submerged forests
by Clement Reid
About the author
Born in London on January 6, 1853, Clement Reid built an impressive scientific career despite being largely self-taught. He joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain in 1874, later became a district geologist, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1899.
Reid is best remembered for studying Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits, fossil plants, and the evidence they offered about long-vanished climates and environments. His books included The Origin of the British Flora and Submerged Forests, and his research helped shape ideas about prehistoric landscapes around Britain, including land now beneath the North Sea.
He died on December 10, 1916, at Milford-on-Sea. Today he is remembered as a careful observer whose fieldwork connected geology, botany, and the story of environmental change in a way that still feels strikingly modern.