John Harold Wellington, physical geographer, was the son of Abraham Hockin Wellington and Eliza Pascoe. He graduated at the University of London in 1914. When World War I (1914-1918) broke out that same year he joined the British Army with the rank of captain and subsequently was awarded the Military Cross and Bar. After the war he entered the School of Geography at Christ's College, University of Cambridge, where he taught geomorphology and physical geography and at the same time obtained a first class pass in Parts 1 and II of the Cambridge Geographical Tripos. In 1921 he came to South Africa to take up an appointment as senior lecturer and head of the Department of Geography at the Transvaal University College in Johannesburg, which became the University of the Witwatersrand the next year. (The post he filled had become vacant earlier that year through the death of James M. Hutcheon*). In 1923 he was promoted to become the first professor of geography at Wits and remained in this position until his retirement at the end of 1957. He was an excellent teacher of undergraduates as well as a keen researcher in physical geography and geomorphology.
Upon his arrival in South Africa Wellington immediately initiated a systematic study of the physical geography of southern Africa, about which little had been published at the time as geography was a relatively new subject. His research required him to spend many weeks in the field each year, often alone, but at other times accompanied by his honours students. He worked not only in South Africa but also in neighbouring countries and produced some twenty important regional studies on the physical and human geography of the subcontinent. For example, "Some geographical factors affecting agriculture in South Africa" (1923), "The physical and economic geography of the central Magaliesberg region of the southern Transvaal" (1926), "Some physical factors affecting the economic development of the Eastern Cape and adjoining areas" (1928), "Some physical influences in the human geography of South Africa" (1929), "The middle course of the Orange River" (1933), "Thermal regions in Natal" (1934), "The Kunene river and the Etosha plain" (1937), "A physiographic regional classification of South Africa" (1946), and "Notes on the physiography of Swaziland and adjoining areas" (1956). Much of his work was published in the South African Geographical Journal between 1923 and 1956. In December 1931 his research materials and instruments were destroyed in a fire that gutted the university's central block.
In 1921, shortly after his arrival, he became active in the affairs of the South African Geographical Society and the society's early survival is mainly the result of his quiet but forceful direction. He served as a member of council of the society almost continuously, as vice-president many times, and as president twice, in 1927 and 1958. His presidential addresses dealt with "The natural regions of the Transvaal" (1927) and "The drainage of southern Africa" (1958). He was also the honorary editor of the South African Geographical Journal during 1922-1927 and 1928 to 1949.
Welling's thorough work gained him an international reputation as an outstanding geographer in South Africa. In 1931 he was one of the small group of distinguished South Africans who were invited to attend the centenary meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held in London and presided over by General J. C. Smuts*. He read a paper on "Land utilization in South Africa", which was later published in the Geographical Review. At the invitation of the president of the American Geographical Society he also contributed a paper on the possibilities of settlement in Africa to that society's report on Limits of Land Settlement which was submitted to an international conference in 1937. He also spent much time over a period of ten years on compiling a physical and human geography of the whole of southern Africa, which was published in two volumes in 1955 under the title Southern Africa: A geographical study. This work is regarded as one of the best of its kind for any continent and in 1958, shortly after his retirement, the University of Cambridge awarded him the degree Doctor of Science (Sc D) for it. In 1967 he and his first honours student C. P. Prescott, received the Jubilee Medal of the South African Geographical Society and at the same time he was elected as the first Fellow of the society. The University of the Witwatersrand awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1972 and the next year he was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa.
Wellington was both earnest and very religious and a man of great integrity. He was married in 1918 to Jessie Whincup. Among his critics he was seen as a great fighter of lost causes.
