Edgeworth David - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For the colonial administrator, see Edgeworth Beresford David
Edgeworth Beresford David
Edgeworth Beresford David was the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong from 1955 - 1957. David became Administrator after Black was named Governor in late 1957....

.

Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth David (commonly known as Edgeworth David) KBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

, DSO

Distinguished Service Order

The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...

, FRS, (28 January 1858 – 28 August 1934) was a Welsh Australian geologist and Antarctic explorer. A household name in his lifetime, David's most significant achievements were discovering the major Hunter Valley coalfield in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

and leading the first expedition to reach the South Magnetic Pole

South Magnetic Pole

The Earth's South Magnetic Pole is the wandering point on the Earth's surface where the geomagnetic field lines are directed vertically upwards...

. He also served with distinction in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

Early life

David was born in St. Fagans

St. Fagans

St Fagans is an area in the west of the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales.To the south lies the village of Michaelston-super-Ely, and to the east the suburb of Fairwater. St Fagans lies on the River Ely, and previously had a railway station on the South Wales Main Line, and currently there is a...

near Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

, Wales, the eldest son of the Rev. William David, a fellow of Jesus College, Oxford

Jesus College, Oxford

Jesus College is one of the colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street...

, a classical scholar and naturalist

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

and his wife Margaret Harriette (née Thomson). His mother's cousin, William A. E. Ussher of the Geological Survey

Geological survey

The term geological survey can be used to describe both the conduct of a survey for geological purposes and an institution holding geological information....

, first interested David in what was to be his life work.

At the age of 12, David went to Magdalen College School, Oxford

Magdalen College School, Oxford

Magdalen College School is an independent school for boys aged 7 to 18 and girls in the sixth form, located on The Plain in Oxford, England. It was founded as part of Magdalen College, Oxford by William Waynflete in 1480....

in 1870. In 1876 he gained a classical scholarship to New College, Oxford

New College, Oxford

New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...

. While there he was lectured by the famous John Ruskin

John Ruskin

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...

and William Spooner

William Archibald Spooner

William Archibald Spooner was a famous Oxford don whose name is given to the linguistic phenomenon of spoonerism.-Biography:...

. In 1878 he suffered a health breakdown and travelled to Canada and Australia to recuperate. Returning to Oxford, he attended lectures on geology by Sir Joseph Prestwich

Joseph Prestwich

Sir Joseph Prestwich FRS, was a British geologist and businessman, known as an expert on the Tertiary Period and for having confirmed the findings of Boucher de Perthes of ancient flint tools in the Somme valley gravel beds....

which stimulated his interest in the subject. After graduating as a Bachelor of Arts without honours in 1880, he spent the following two years in field study of the geology of Wales. In November 1881 he read his first paper, Evidences of Glacial Action in the Neighbourhood of Cardiff before the Cardiff Naturalists' Society. In the following year he briefly studied at the Royal School of Mines, London, under Professor J.W. Judd before accepting the position of Assistant Geological Surveyor to the Government of New South Wales, Australia.

Career in Australia

David took up his post in November 1882. In 1884 his report on the tin

Tin

Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...

deposits in the New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

district was published, and three years later it was expanded into the Geology of the Vegetable Creek Tin Mining Field, New England District. Apart from its scientific interest this was valuable in connection with the mining operations on this field, from which some £10,000,000 worth of tin was won. On 30 July 1885 he married to Caroline (Cara) Mallett, principal of the Hurlstone Training College for Teachers, who had travelled to Australia in the same vessel with him.

In April 1886 he began surveying the Hunter Valley coalfields and in August discovered the Greta coal seam

South Maitland coalfields

The South Maitland coalfields was the most extensive coalfield in New South Wales until the great coal mining slump of the 1960s. It was discovered by Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson's party when they were engaged in an exploratory visit to the Hunter River Valley during July 1801.Mention has been made...

, which yielded over £50,000,000 worth of coal up to 1949. Much of his time during the next four years was spent near Maitland where he was still tracing and mapping the coal measures and reporting to the government on other matters of commercial value. David's assistant in 1890 was William Sutherland Dun

William Sutherland Dun

William Sutherland Dun was an Australian palaeontologist, geologist and president of the Royal Society of New South Wales....

.

In 1891 David was appointed Professor of Geology at the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

, a position he held till 1924.

David was not only a good scientist but very cultured, with a sense of humour, great enthusiasm, sympathy, and courtesy, and he quickly fitted into his new position. His department was housed in a small cottage, its equipment was poor, and he had no lecturers or demonstrators; but he gradually got better facilities built and up his department. In 1892 he was president of the geological section of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science at the Hobart

Hobart

Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

meeting, and held the same position at Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

in 1895.

In 1896 David went to the Pacific atoll of Funafuti

Funafuti

Funafuti is an atoll that forms the capital of the island nation of Tuvalu. It has a population of 4,492 , making it the most populated atoll in the country. It is a narrow sweep of land between 20 and 400 metres wide, encircling a large lagoon 18 km long and 14 km wide, with a surface of...

as part of an expedition under Professor William Sollas

William Johnson Sollas

William Johnson Sollas FRS was a British geologist and anthropologist. After studying at the City of London School, the Royal College of Chemistry and the Royal School of Mines he matriculated to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded First Class Honours in geology...

of Oxford in order to take borings which it was hoped would settle the question of the formation of coral atolls. There were defects in the boring machinery and the bore penetrated only slightly more than 100 feet (approx. 31 m). In 1897 David led a second expedition (that included George Sweet

George Sweet

George Sweet was an English-born Australian geologist, president of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1905.Sweet investigated fossils in the Mansfield district for Frederick McCoy 1888-95, and was second-in-command to Sir Edgeworth David on the Funafuti expedition in 1897...

as second-in-command, and Walter George Woolnough

Walter George Woolnough

Walter George Woolnough was an Australian geologist.Woolnough was born in Brushgrove, Grafton, New South Wales, and attended Sydney Boys High School, Newington College and the University of Sydney...

) which succeeded in reaching a depth of 557 feet (170 m) after which he had to return to Sydney. He then organised a third expedition which, under the leadership of Alfred Edmund Finckh, was successful in carrying the bore to 1114 feet (340 m). The results provided support for Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

's theory of subsidence, and the expeditions made David's name as a geologist. Cara accompanied him on the second expedition and published a well-received account called Funafuti, or Three Months on a Coral Island.

David's reputation was growing in Europe, and in 1899 he was awarded the Bigsby medal of the Geological Society of London

Geological Society of London

The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...

, and in 1900 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. From 1900 to 1907 he conducted field studies of glaciation in the Kosciusko

Kosciuszko National Park

Kosciuszko National Park covers 690,000 hectares and contains mainland Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko for which it is named, and Cabramurra the highest town in Australia...

plateau and Precambrian

Precambrian

The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...

glaciation in South Australia

In 1904 David was elected president of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science which met in Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

, and in 1906 he attended the International Geological Congress held in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. On his way back to Australia he was able to see the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...

of Colorado and to study the effect of the San Francisco earthquake.

Antarctic exploration

In mid-1907 David was invited to join Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition

Nimrod Expedition

The British Antarctic Expedition 1907–09, otherwise known as the Nimrod Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton. Its main target, among a range of geographical and scientific objectives, was to be first to the South Pole...

to the Antarctic

Antarctic

The Antarctic is the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence...

and in December won Australian Government funding for the expedition. The same month he left for New Zealand with Leo Cotton and Douglas Mawson

Douglas Mawson

Sir Douglas Mawson, OBE, FRS, FAA was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer and Academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton, Mawson was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.-Early work:He was appointed geologist to an...

, two of his former students. David was nearly 50 years of age and it was intended that he would stay only until April 1908, but on route to Antarctica on the Nimrod he altered his plans and decided to stay for the whole expedition.

From 5 to 11 March 1908, David led the first ascent of Mount Erebus

Mount Erebus

Mount Erebus in Antarctica is the southernmost historically active volcano on Earth, the second highest volcano in Antarctica , and the 6th highest ultra mountain on an island. With a summit elevation of , it is located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes, notably Mount...

, the only active volcano

Volcano

2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

in Antarctica. David led the summit party consisting of Mawson, Dr Alistair Mackay

Alistair Mackay

Alistair Mackay was a Scottish doctor and polar explorer. He was one the trio of explorers, along with Douglas Mawson and Professor Edgeworth David, who became the first humans to reach the Magnetic South Pole.-Antarctica with Shackleton:...

and himself, and there was a supporting party of three which it was afterwards decided should also attempt to reach the summit. In this they were successful in spite of a blizzard which barred their progress for a day and night. One member of the party had his feet badly frostbitten, and had to be left in camp before the final dash, but David and four others reached the summit and the whole party returned to the base.

On 5 October 1908, David led Mawson and Mackay on an attempt to reach the Magnetic South Pole. For ten weeks the men followed the coast north supplementing their stores with a diet of seals and penguins. They then crossed the Drygalski Ice Tongue and turned inland. They still faced a 700 km return journey and established a depot to enable them to transfer their load to one overladen sled and to remove the need to relay. On 16 January 1909 they finally arrived at the South Magnetic Pole and took possession of the region for the British Crown.

Edgeworth David had been appointed leader of the expedition by Shackleton but by the end of January with all three of the party experiencing severe physical deterioration, David was increasingly unable to contribute. On 31 January with Mawson out of earshot, Mackay exerted his authority as the party's doctor and threatened to declare the Professor insane unless he gave written authority of leadership to Mawson. Mawson reluctantly took command but by 3 February he acknowledged in his diary that "the Prof was now certainly partly demented". That day the party reached the coast line with perfect timing as within 24 hours they were collected by the Nimrod for the return trip to Cape Royds. The trio had covered a distance of 1260 miles which stood as the longest unsupported sled journey until the mid-1980s.

Shackleton's expedition returned to New Zealand on 25 March 1909. When David returned to Sydney he was presented with the Mueller medal by the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science at a rapturous official welcome.

At Shackleton's request David then went on a lecture tour, and earned enough money to pay the expenses of publication of the two volumes on the geology of the expedition. He also wrote his "Narrative of the Magnetic Pole Journey", which appeared in the second volume of Shackleton's Heart of the Antarctic. In 1910 the honour of Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George was conferred on him, and visiting England in connexion with the scientific results of the Antarctic expedition, Oxford University gave him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science

Doctor of Science

Doctor of Science , usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D. or Dr.Sc., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries Doctor of Science is the name used for the standard doctorate in the sciences, elsewhere the Sc.D...

. In 1913 he was elected for the second time president of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science.

Australian Mining Corps

When World War I

World War I

broke out in 1914, David was a strenuous supporter of the war effort, supporting the campaign for conscription and using his advocacy and organisational abilities to set up the Australian Mining Corps (or "Tunnellers") in August 1915.

David enlisted with them as a Major, at the unusually advanced age of 58. In February 1916 they sailed for the Western Front. When there he used his geological expertise to advise on the construction of dugouts, trenches, and tunnels, and to aid in the provision of pure drinking water from underground supplies.

Later that year the Corps was disbanded and its personnel redistributed. David became relatively independent and spent his time in geological investigations. In September 1916 he fell to the bottom of a well he was examining, breaking two ribs and rupturing his urethra

Urethra

In anatomy, the urethra is a tube that connects the urinary bladder to the genitals for the removal of fluids out of the body. In males, the urethra travels through the penis, and carries semen as well as urine...

. He was invalided to London but returned to the Front in November.

On 7 June 1917 his wartime contribution culminated in the mining of German positions in the Battle of Messines

Battle of Messines

The Battle of Messines was a battle of the Western front of the First World War. It began on 7 June 1917 when the British Second Army under the command of General Herbert Plumer launched an offensive near the village of Mesen in West Flanders, Belgium...

.http://www.tunnellers.net/corps_history/branagan_1987_paper.doc

In January 1918 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order

Distinguished Service Order

. and in November he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. The war having concluded, he was demobilised in 1919.

Later life

In September 1920 David was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Returning to Australia, he took up a long-cherished project, the writing of a definitive work, The Geology of the Commonwealth of Australia. In 1921–22 David helped set up the Australian National Research Council and served as its first President. In 1924 he retired as Professor of Geology at the University of Sydney, the chair passing to his student Leo Cotton, a neighbour in Hornsby, New South Wales

Hornsby, New South Wales

* Highest Maximum Temperature: 42 °C* Lowest Maximum Temperature: 4.9 °C* Warmest Month: January* Coolest Month: July* Highest Precipitation: February* Lowest Precipitation: July-Notable residents:...

. In 1928 he discovered what he believed were Precambrian

Precambrian

The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...

fossils, creating controversy which remained until his death.

In 1931 he published the Geological Map of the Commonwealth and the accompanying Explanatory Notes, designed to be part of his Geology of the Commonwealth of Australia. He died in 1934 without being able to complete this work and was given a state funeral.

Legacy

David's The Geology of the Commonwealth of Australia was finally completed by his chosen collaborator, Associate Professor William R. Browne

William Rowan Browne

William Rowan Browne was an Australian geologist, author of The Geology of the Commonwealth of Australia.-Early life:Browne was born in Lislea, County Londonderry, Ireland, both parents were school teachers...

in 1950. Of his many papers, over 100 will be found listed in the Geological Magazine for January 1922. A travelling scholarship in his memory was founded at the University of Sydney in 1936.

The Edgeworth David Medal is named in his honour. It is awarded by the Royal Society of New South Wales

Royal Society of New South Wales

The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. It was established as the Philosophical Society of Australasia on 27 June 1821...

for distinguished contributions by a young scientist under the age of thirty-five for work done mainly in Australia or its territories. The mineral davidite

Davidite

Davidite is a rare earth oxide mineral with chemical end members La and Ce. It exists in two forms:*Davidite- 20O38 discovered at Radium Hill mine, South Australia in 1906 and named for Australian geologist Tenatt William Edgeworth David .*Davidite- 20O38 first described in 1960 from Vemork,...

is named after him, as was the Edgeworth David Building (demolished 2006) at the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

and Edgeworth David Avenue in Hornsby, New South Wales

Hornsby, New South Wales

where he spent his later years. He has been depicted on two Australian postage stamps.

Edgeworth David Base is the name of a summer station in the Bunger Hills

Bunger Hills

Bunger Hills or Bunger Lakes or Bunger Oasis is a coastal range on the Knox Coast in Wilkes Land in Antarctica, consisting of a group of moderately low, rounded coastal hills, overlain by morainic drift and notably ice free throughout the year, lying south of the Highjump Archipelago.The Bunger...

area of Antarctica. It has been maintained by Australia since 1986.

The suburb of Edgeworth

Edgeworth, New South Wales

Edgeworth is a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, located west of Newcastle's central business district. It is part of the City of Lake Macquarie local government area....

in the Hunter Valley

Hunter Valley

The Hunter Region, more commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney with an approximate population of 645,395 people. Most of the population of the Hunter Region lives within of the coast, with 55% of the entire...

, New South Wales, is named after David.

The Edgeworth David quarry in Seaham

Seaham, New South Wales

Seaham is a suburb of the Port Stephens Local Government Area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Williams River which flows into the Hunter River downstream from Seaham village at Raymond Terrace....

, New South Wales is named after David, who discovered varve

Varve

A varve is an annual layer of sediment or sedimentary rock.The word 'varve' is derived from the Swedish word varv whose meanings and connotations include 'revolution', 'in layers', and 'circle'. The term first appeared as Hvarfig lera on the first map produced by the Geological Survey of Sweden in...

shale there in 1914.

The boreholes on Funafuti

Funafuti

, Tuvalu are known as David's Drill.

In 1968 he was honoured on a postage stamp issued by Australia Post

Australia Post

Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...

http://www.australianstamp.com/images/large/0008970.jpg.

Edgeworth David's daughter Margaret McIntyre

Margaret McIntyre

Margaret Edgeworth David McIntyre OBE was the first woman elected to the Parliament of Tasmania , representing the seat of Cornwall in the Legislative Council....

was the first woman elected to the Parliament of Tasmania

Parliament of Tasmania

The Parliament of Tasmania consists of the Tasmanian Legislative Council, Tasmanian House of Assembly and the Monarch represented by the Governor of Tasmania....

and was awarded the Order of the British Empire