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Geddes, Sir Patrick (1854-1932). Scottish biologist, he was influenced by members of the Le Play school on a visit to France and slowly began to develop an interest in social problems and the quality of urban life. His interests were wide, covering sociology, economics, social reform, art criticism and civic design. With Victor Branford he founded the Sociology Society of London, largely as a vehicle for his own ideas. He was prominent in the town-planning movement which helped to bring about legislation in 1909. He travelled widely, taught in many universities, but failed to obtain the newly established chair of sociology at London University. He was an enthusiastic polymath, impatient and sometimes tactless, he talked too much and whilst mentally exhilarating he was also exhausting. His endeavour to relate sociological studies to urban development is his abiding achievement. His main works are Cities in Evolution, 1915, reissued in 1949, and Report to the Durbar of Indore (2 vols.), 1920; the latter is his most important town-planning report.