 However, he thought the department too unmanageable and in 1948 returned to Liverpool as the Herdman Professor of Geology.In his time in the Herdman chair, he re-organised the Liverpool geology department and put it at the forefront of geological research in Britain.In 1962, to increase his opportunities for research in Africa, he took up a chair in the University of Leeds and joined the staff of the Research Institute of African Geology (serving as director from 1965 until retirement).