When taking that enjoyable walk along Sandbanks beach or below the Chines towards Bournemouth, have you ever stopped to watch and consider the movement of the waves as they approach the shore?

As a photographer I have often captured their patterns on the sand as they lazily drift over pebbles, flowing and receding as they polish stones and shells which then sparkle in the morning sunlight. That however is purely studying the waves aesthetically and not perhaps very scientifically.

When I came across the books and writings of Vaughan Cornish I became fascinated by the man who took waves far more seriously than I could ever hope to, beyond of course just photographing them.

I think the words which interested me most from his writings were those which I like to think were written during his life in Poole and more precisely during the winter of 1895 – 1896 and the view from his home. In one of his memoirs he wrote:

“Every day the waves of the sea – beautiful – mysterious and insistent drew me more to the path on the cliff whence I could watch them curl and break and listen to their splash on the sandy shore. I stood there on the afternoon of a calm day in early autumn at the time of low water of a spring tide. The little waves, gliding slowly in over the flat sands, bent round the ends of a shoal, as waves of light are refracted, and, meeting, passed through each other, each to continue its own course".

Vaughan Cornish was born in 1862 and after studying Chemistry at the University of Manchester where he obtained a D.Sc. degree he became director of technical education for Hampshire County Council.
In 1891 he married Ellen Provis and together they travelled extensively on many of his research programmes. His early researches continued throughout his life and were based around the formation of waves of water, snow, sand, snow drifts and sand dunes. His research work was recognized by the Royal Geographical Society who gave him the Gill Memorial Award in 1900.

He was studying earthquakes in Jamaica when an earthquake struck in 1907, and both Vaughan and Ellen were injured. His experiences were later published in the Geographical Journal in 1912.

In 1903 Dr. and Mrs. Cornish travelled around the world, making a special study of Japan, and later several visits to Panama studying the Canal while it was under construction.

Sadly, Ellen died on 24th March 1911 aged 53, in the Continental Hotel in Bournemouth and sometime afterwards Dr. Cornish published "The Travels of Ellen Cornish" as a tribute to her memory.

It is perhaps too technical for an article of this nature to define in any detail the geographical path of his studies and their ultimate conclusions. In his book ‘Waves of the Sea and other Waves’ Vaughan Cornish describes his research along the south coast and publishes some of his photography supporting the formation of waves and sand dunes;-

“In 1895 I went to live on the South Coast, and every day the waves of the sea — beautiful, mysterious, and insistent — drew me more and more to the path on the cliff whence I could watch them curl and break, and listen to their splash upon the sandy shore. Elsewhere a long, low wave, impinging obliquely on a small bank of sand, was thrown backwards at an angle of reflection equal to that at which it had struck the obstacle. And as I watched I thought what a fine thing it would be if the study of all kinds of waves could be co- ordinated. I had just finished another piece of work, so I embarked at once on a course of reading on waves of all kinds, which was, moreover, not altogether new ground to me. At first my home on the South Coast was a favourable position for observations both of waves of water and of sand, but presently travel became necessary in order to develop the subject. The home was given up, and I wandered abroad among sandhills and snowdrifts, explored amphibiously the sandbanks of estuaries, measured waves in storms at sea, timed the throbbing surge of torrents, the heaving of whirlpools and the drumming thunder of waterfalls”.


Vaughan Cornish particularly found the wave actions along the shore between Branksome Chine and Poole Haven of particular importance to his studies, as did the action of sand along Studland beach with the formation of the dunes.

It is indeed most gratifying to know that his research and knowledge of the movements of waves and sand upon our local shore has today become the basis of how we protect our shoreline from the effects of nature and the power of the sea.

Vaughan Cornish died on 1 May 1948 age 85 and it is perhaps regrettable that such a man may not have become a household name in fact he died almost unknown with some of his research being occasionally described as eccentric or far-fetched. Neither was he famous as a scientist or geologist as some had become throughout history.

Later an engineer by the name of Ralph Bagnold became fascinated by the same subject particularly in respect of the formation of sand dunes and quick sand. He found that almost no research had been carried out on this subject until he came across the papers of Dr. Vaughan Cornish. These detailed research papers on what was described as a very complex subject, were hailed by Bagnold as extremely significant and assisted greatly in establishing the true physics and analysis of wave and sand structures.

In the longer term Dr. Vaughan Cornish leaves a legacy which has proven to have had considerable impact on modern environmental protection, flood barriers, coastal construction and even tactical military strategies, all having been inspired by our own stretch of the Dorset coastline.

© Roger Lane 2019

Acknowledgement: Sections of Dr. Vaughan Cornish writings and Photos by kind permission of the Library of Congress USA.