Inaugural Fookes Meeting
© Geological Society of London
The inaugural Fookes Meeting for Engineering Geology (FMEG), which takes place at Burlington House on 21-22 November 2025, will focus on climate adaptation, digital geoscience, the energy transition, ground modelling and geohazards. These themes form some of the key topics for future geoscience research, natural resource planning, civil engineering, and geohazard and environmental management. This Society-led meeting will appeal especially to students and early career graduates but will also provide seasoned practitioners with the opportunity to share knowledge and experience, especially in relation to evolving techniques and technology.
The meeting will be held every two years by virtue of a generous donation by the late Mrs Edna Fookes, in memory of her husband Professor Peter Fookes, who many will recognise as a pioneer of engineering geology. Peter was pivotal in developing the world’s first master’s degree course in Engineering Geology, and was devoted to teaching, mentoring and promoting younger members of the profession, as well as finding ways to enhance engineering geological practice through integrating techniques and skillsets from allied disciplines. The FMEG would have received a resounding seal of approval from Peter as an opportunity to learn and collaborate, build upon the knowledge and experience of others, and help shape the way forward. The meeting is timed to coincide with the Engineering Group’s Glossop Lecture and Award evening at the nearby Royal Institution on 21 November. Professor Fookes was the first Glossop Lecturer and recipient of the first Glossop Medal in 1997.
Gareth Hearn Hearn Geoserve Ltd
Obituary for Edna May Fookes (1933-2025)
© Gareth Hearn and the Fookes family
Edna was born in 1933 at Kingston Hospital in Surrey to Violet Alice and John Arthur Nix, who lived in nearby Tolworth. She was the third of five children. During WW2, the siblings were evacuated to a small village just outside Salisbury. After the war, Edna returned to Tolworth, passed her 11 Plus and went to Tiffin Girls’ School in Kingston upon Thames, before going on to further education. She then commenced her career as a personal assistant and secretary. It was while she was working at Mowlem, one of the largest UK civil engineering companies at the time, that she met Peter Fookes. She ran his office with such efficiency and authority that she quickly became referred to as ‘Sir’ by Peter, such was his respect for a wonderful lady. Edna accompanied Peter as his secretary on a business trip to the Falkland Islands and Georgia. From then on, their relationship bloomed, and they married at Kingston registry office in 1987 before settling down together in Winchester.
Edna loved to travel with Peter for his far-flung assignments in fascinating countries, like Papua New Guinea. They also enjoyed adventure train journeys and river cruises together and spent a lot of time on their canal boat called Buffoonery, enjoying their holiday home in Swanage, as well as places of historical, geological and steam train locomotive interest in Dorset. Edna’s other hobbies and pastimes saw her trying her hand at almost anything. She was an excellent seamstress, making clothes, fancy dress outfits, soft furnishings and Humpty Dumpty’s. She had a Georgian-style dolls house that she enjoyed decorating and furnishing, paying exquisite attention to period detail. In her later years, she took up painting and applied her skills in Swanage and while she was overseas with Peter.
Edna loved to travel with Peter for his far-flung assignments in fascinating countries
But Edna will be remembered most for the person she was. She was the perfect big sister, a wonderful aunt to five nieces and nephews, and loved caring for and entertaining other young family members. She had an amazing imagination and great stories to tell. She was kind, always welcoming, funny, vivacious and had a contagious sense of humour. She was devoted to Peter and he to her. They semi-retired to Sunrise in Winchester before fully retiring to Wickham in Hampshire.
After Peter’s passing in 2020, Edna arranged to provide generous funding to the Geological Society of London to establish the Fookes Meeting for Engineering Geology; a meeting that will be held once every two years from November 2025, primarily for the benefit of early-career engineering geologists. On occasions since 2020, when asked ‘what did you do on Christmas Day, Edna?’ she would answer ‘I spent the day alone at home with Peter’. Well, contentedly, Edna passed away in the knowledge that the two would become reunited forever.
Gareth Hearn and Edna’s family
