Richard Gilbert West (31 May 1926 – 30 December 2020) was born in Hendon, Middlesex, the eldest of four children of A.G.R. (Gilbert) West, a broadcasting engineer, and Daisy, née Hutchinson. The family later moved to Beckenham, Kent. He was educated at King’s School Canterbury and evacuated to Cornwall with the school during the Second World War.

In 1944, West was called up for military service and was eventually posted to India with the Royal Signals. After demobilization in 1948, he entered Clare College, Cambridge to study Natural Sciences. Having a strong interest in both botany and geology, he ultimately chose botany for his final degree, graduating with First Class Honours. He remained at Cambridge for his doctoral studies under Professor Harry Godwin. His PhD focused on the analysis of Pleistocene interglacial deposits in East Anglia, particularly at Hoxne and Bobbitshole, Ipswich. Through detailed sediment analysis he reconstructed past vegetational and climatic conditions using fossil pollen and plant macrofossils. His study of the Hoxne site established it as the stratotype for the Hoxnian Interglacial.

Following his PhD, West was awarded a Research Fellowship at Clare College and began a long academic career at Cambridge. He held positions as Demonstrator and later Lecturer in Botany, eventually becoming Director of the Subdepartment of Quaternary Research and Professor of Palaeoecology. He supervised numerous students and fostered an interdisciplinary research environment that brought together botanists, geologists, geographers, and archaeologists.

West played a central role in establishing the stratigraphic framework of the British Quaternary. He identified and defined many of the glacial and interglacial stages that structure the period, including work on earlier Pleistocene deposits such as the Crag formations of East Anglia. His later work on the Cromer Forest-bed Formation combined nearly two decades of fieldwork with laboratory analysis to produce a comprehensive synthesis of pre-glacial Pleistocene environments.

West also made important contributions to glacial and periglacial geology. Early in his career, he applied techniques such as till fabric analysis (stone orientation) to infer ice movement, and he was among the first in Britain to document periglacial features such as frost structures and patterned ground. His field experiences in Svalbard and the North American arctic allowed him to study modern glacial and periglacial processes, providing analogues for interpreting Pleistocene deposits.

In later years, West continued to refine knowledge of Quaternary environments in the East Anglian Fenland. His research on sites such as Somersham and the River Wensum valley provided detailed reconstructions of environmental change across glacial–interglacial cycles, incorporating evidence from sediments, fossils, and geomorphology. He also investigated cold-stage floras, compiling extensive datasets on plant macrofossils to understand vegetation under periglacial conditions. Even after his formal retirement from Cambridge, he remained actively engaged in research.

Wesr published over 150 scientific papers and several books. He served as co-editor of The New Phytologist and contributed to numerous editorial boards. He was also active in scientific administration, serving on research councils and advisory committees, and was a founding member of the Quaternary Research Association.

His achievements in Quaternary research were widely recognized. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1968 and received numerous honours, including the Lyell and Bigsby Medals of the Geological Society of London and the Albrecht Penck Medal of the Deutsche Quartärvereinigung. He was also elected to several international academies and received honorary memberships in major scientific organizations.

A detailed account of Richard West’s life and work was published by his former students and colleagues: P.L. Gibbard and C. Turner (2023) Richard Gilbert West. 31 May 1926—30 December 2020. Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc.74: 457–480.