ABSTRACT
William Sommerville was a Scots agriculturalist and forestry management expert central to early British efforts in developing sustainable woodland management. Somerville worked on his father’s farm and then embarked on an academic career specializing in forestry. Utilizing funding generated by John Croumbie Brown’s advocacy, he became the first lecturer in forestry at Edinburgh University before later becoming a professor of agriculture and forestry at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Somerville was also widely published on a range of forestry matters. In this speech, Somerville calls for the extension of the Forest Schools initiative pioneered in Edinburgh, which kick-started his career. Somerville had been appointed head of the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion, the Reclamation of Tidal Lands and Aforestation, whose second report came out shortly before this speech. However, the recommendations of that commission, which were in line with Somerville’s views here, were not acted upon aside from the initiation of a few small-scale schemes.
