Glossop was born in Bakewell into a family with a long-standing presence in the area. He received his education at Cheltenham College before attending the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College London, where he graduated in 1924.[2] During his student years, he founded an arts and humanities library at the college, which later became the Haldane Library.[3][2] It was whilst at college he was first given the nickname ‘Silas’ after Silas Q. Porter, the absent-minded professor from the novel Tarzan of the Apes. He retained the name throughout his life.[2][4]
Career
After graduation, he initially worked as a mining engineer in Canada followed by a stint as a lecturer at the University of Birmingham,[5][6] before returning to Canada in 1929. His career path then took him to Mexico and subsequently to John Mowlem & Co Ltd in 1930 as an assistant engineer. During the mid-1930s recession, he worked overseas as a mine manager in the Gold Coast.[3]
In 1937, Glossop shifted his focus to geotechnical engineering. He played a key role in the investigation of a failure in an earth dam for a new Metropolitan Water Boardreservoir at Chingford being constructed by Mowlem. He set up a small laboratory on site, extending its operations to other Mowlem contracts.[7][8]
His proficiency in soil mechanics grew rapidly, inspired by his interactions with the Building Research Station group which included notable engineers such as Alec Skempton (Glossop & Skempton, 1945), Leonard Cooling, and George Meyerhof, as well as the renowned soil mechanics engineer Karl von Terzaghi.[9][6]
In 1940, Glossop was tasked with overseeing the construction of an RAFairfield in Hampshire and later, in 1942, a similar project in Leiston. Despite these new responsibilities, he continued his involvement with the Chingford project.[10] He established a makeshift laboratory at Leiston, transferring equipment and personnel. This period marked significant advancements in soil mechanics, aided by his collaboration with Hugh Golder.[11][3][12]
In November 1943, Glossop co-founded Soil Mechanics Ltd in a flat in Victoria Street, London. This venture, initiated with Golder and Harold Harding, became the first commercial geotechnical laboratory in England.[13] The newly formed company initially served as a service provider to Mowlem's contracts, however the business areas soon expanded into work for other contractors, leading to its growth and the eventual establishment of a separate office, Glossop House, in Wokingham.[3]
Teaching, publications, and awards
In 1945, he was among the authors of a series of lectures on soil mechanics organized by the Institution of Civil Engineers. He played a pivotal role in the launch of the journal Géotechnique in 1948, after initial discussions at a meeting in a nightclub in The Hague with E.C.W.A Geuze and Hugh Golder in 1946.(Cooling et al., 1975)[14] Glossop's involvement extended to covering the journal's initial printing costs from his own funds. He served on its editorial board for 20 years.[15][4][16][17][18]
