Professor Peel came to Bristol as successor to Professor Jervis in 1957 and served as Professor of Physical Geography until his retirement in 1977. A Cambridge graduate and a Fellow of St Catherine's College. Professor Peel worked in the Gilf Kebir area of the Sahara in the late 1930's. He served in World War II with the Long Range Desert Patrol behind German lines in the Libyan Desert. This early experience of deserts lead to a life-long research interest in desert geomorphology and he bacame a world authority on their landforms, chairing the Arid Zone Commission of the International Geographical Union for over a decade.