This special issue of Géotechnique marks the 60th anniversary of the first issue in June 1948. It has been edited by a sub-committee of the Géotechnique Advisory Panel consisting of Beatrice Baudet, Stephen Brown, John Burland, Mike Chrimes, Bill Craig, Chris Martin, Paul Morrison and myself with assistance from Ben Ramster, Craig Schaper and Kathleen Hollow from the publishers, Thomas Telford. Although the papers were written by authors invited by the subcommittee, they were reviewed by members of the Panel following normal Géotechnique practice.
The first four papers trace the history of Géotechnique and of ground engineering, describe the often colourful personalities of its founders, and give a glimpse of the future. As the generations move on and memories fade, these papers, especially those by Stephen Brown and John Burland, record both the factual history and personal memories. As well as being important historical documents, they give fascinating insights into the origins of Géotechnique and, together with the paper by Mike Chrimes, the early days of British geotechnical engineering.
This issue also contains a collection of shorter articles, each of which reviews the contributions that papers published in Géotechnique have made to the development of theory and practice over the past 60 years. To some extent the variations in the lengths of these reflects the numbers of papers that have been published. There is a popular but inaccurate perception that Géotechnique papers are too theoretical and of little importance to practice. Almost without exception, those published here show this perception to be false and the authors conclude that Géotechnique has made major contributions to ground engineering practice and continues to do so.
I should like to thank all those who have contributed to the production of this issue: authors, sub-committee, Advisory Panel, secretariat and all those who have published papers in Géotechnique over the past 60 years. I should also like to thank the publisher, Leon Heward-Mills, for his support and encouragement for this special issue. Following its publication there will be a public meeting on 9 July 2008 at ICE headquarters, One Great George Street, for long the home of Géotechnique, followed by a dinner to celebrate its diamond jubilee.
Finally I wish Géotechnique ‘many happy returns’.
