SIR TANNATT W ILLIAM EDGEW ORTH DAVID 1858-1934

T he death of but very few has evoked such general sorrow and regret as was felt and expressed when, on August 28, 1934, T annatt William Edgeworth David passed into the great silent Beyond.

For quite two generations past he, by his keen advocacy, ardent enthusiasm, and devotion in the search for truth had been a leading pillar of the scientific community in Australasia. But his good works were not confined merely to the realm of science, for his charming personality and deep concern in the national welfare carried him to well-deserved heights in public estimation.

Attributes of his greatness were an endearing charm of manner and a nobility of mind embodying high Christian principles. He was an accomplished scholar plentifully endowed with fine instinct and broad vision. In his public utterances the richness of his inner self was often revealed as on the occasion, a year or so before his death, when at Sydney University, the doctorate of Science was conferred upon him ; in acknowledging the honour, he said, “ . . . one thing I will stand to, and that is, that all who earnestly pursue truth will find glory and loveliness in this universe, and in human hearts : a glory and a loveliness that manifest the beneficent working of an unseen Power.”

With a rare fund of anecdote and a keen sense of humour, as well as a vivid dramatic appeal and exceptional powers of narration, he was always good company and the centre of attraction in any gathering. By tact, influence, and a unique personality, he promoted science, and especially geological research, in Australia for more than four decades.

Throughout Australasia his familiar figure was widely known and respected. Energy and determination were expressed in his firm carriage, whilst his finely chiselled features, keen grey-blue eyes, a broad forehead, and a wealth of silvery hair were eloquent of good health and mind. His clear, well-pitched voice, deliberate utterance, clarity of expression, and enthusiasm for the subject in hand always held a magnetic appeal for his audience. His is a long and honoured record, which commenced in Britain and extended around the World, embracing many lands and strange adventures.

David had in his veins contributions from many sources—Welsh, English, Scots, Irish, and French. His father, the Reverend William David, M.A., had married a Canadian lady with French forbears. Tannatt William Edgeworth was born in the year 1858 at St. Fagan’s

Rectory, near Cardiff. The period 1870-76 was spent at Magdalen College School, Oxford, where in due course he became senior prefect and captain of the rugby team. His studies at this time were mainly classical and in 1876 he won a classics scholarship for New College, Oxford.

In the year 1880 the degree of B.A. was obtained with first-class in classics at the honours examination in moderations. Even at that time science made an appeal, geology especially claiming his interest, which was further stimulated by courses of lectures delivered by Sir Joseph Prestwich ; these had the effect of turning his attention definitely to natural science as his life’s work. A career thus determined, he proceeded to London to extend his geological studies and to receive much inspiration under Professor W. J. Judd and Mr. Frank Rutley at the Royal School of Mines.

In 1882 he sailed for Australia to take up a post as field surveyor in the geological service of the government of New South Wales. His first important contribution in this capacity was a study of the tin-stone deposits of the New England district. His observations materially assisted mining developments in that rich field.

Next followed a protracted investigation of the Hunter River coalfield, a subject which occupied much of his time during the succeeding twenty years. A key to the upper series with the Newcastle coal measures was revealed in excellent cliff sections along the coast, but the details of the immensely thick lower beds with the Greta coal horizon were, on account of the general absence of suitable sections, unravelled only by the exercise of a high degree of skill and devotion to the undertaking. David’s dis­coveries in this field and the accurate delineation of the strata of such an important coal basin has furnished a classic feature in Australian geology and a contribution of outstanding economic importance.

In the year 1891, on being appointed to the Chair of Geology at the University of Sydney, he severed official connexion with the geological survey, and thereafter he enthusiastically set to work on the task of building up what soon became distinguished as a very notable school of geology. As a fluent and lucid lecturer with a great personal charm of manner, he captivated students who gladly rallied around him. Ardent and tireless, with an amazing power for work, he rapidly forged ahead and was soon recognized as one of Australia’s leading scientists.

About this time a project of great interest to geologists was that organized by the Royal Society for the investigation of coral reefs. This was directed to the coral atoll of Funafuti situated in the South Pacific Ocean, some 500 miles north of the Fiji Islands. The object of the under­

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taking was to test the validity of Darwin’s theory of the growth of coral atolls by boring through the coral limestone to a depth, in order to ascertain the nature of the foundational rock. In the execution of the project, unexpected difficulties were encountered, necessitating an extension of the original programme. With this object, in 1897, David was appointed to the committee and entrusted with the leadership of the second coral-boring expedition. This was successful, exceeding the objective depth, namely, 600 feet. I t was then decided to continue the work for a third season, when the bore was extended to an extreme depth of 1114 feet. The successful conclusion of this investigation was recognized in the award to David of the Bigsby Medal of the Geological Society of London (1899) and his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (1900).

From his student days, David had taken a special interest in evidences of past glaciations. He made interesting discoveries of the kind in Australia and contributed numerous reports bearing on the subject. His special field for work in this connexion lay in the glacial horizons of the Permo-Carboniferous basin of the Hunter River region, and in the relics of Pleistocene glaciation in the neighbourhood of Mount Kosciusko. However, at one time or another he visited all the classical areas evidenc­ing past glacial conditions in Australasia.

Ever an enthusiastic member of divers scientific societies dealing with geology or with general science, he served early in his career on their respective councils and as president of each in turn of those centred in Sydney, namely, the Royal Society of New South Wales and the Linnean Society of New South Wales, also the geological section of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. In the year 1904 he occupied the distinguished office of general president of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science at its Dunedin (New Zealand) meeting, on which occasion he delivered an inspiring address upon the aims and ideals of an Australasian science. The administrative work of the University also occupied rather a large share of his time, for his good judgement and prudent counsels were always valued.

In the year 1906, whilst on the way to Mexico as a delegate to the International Geological Congress, he spent a few weeks at the head of the Godavari River getting a first-hand acquaintance with certain glacial phenomena of India.

Immediately after his return to Australia from Mexico, Sir Ernest Shackleton, then organizing his first expedition to Antarctica, invited the already famous Professor of geology at Sydney University to accompany the “ Nimrod ” on the round voyage, to Antarctica and back to New

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Zealand, in the summer of 1907-8. This invitation met a ready accept­ance and David sailed South, leaving New Zealand on January 1, 1908, with the intention of returning three months later in time for the new academic year. However, his striking personality, energy, and erudition so impressed Shackleton that he begged David not to return to Australia with the ship but to join the land party and remain a year in Antarctica. So great was David’s love of adventure that he quickly decided to risk the disapproval of the Senate of the University and to chance what might befall in the frozen South. The gallant Professor was then just completing his fiftieth year, a time when most men would have hesitated to face the rigours of the Antarctic. Though a chief of scientific staff had been appointed prior to David joining the party, he, by his superior status, wide scientific knowledge, and tact, virtually held that distinction. Undoubtedly, the success of that expedition owed much to his wise counsels and tireless energy.

Not satisfied with conducting observations merely in the neighbourhood of Winter Quarters, he obtained Shackleton’s approval to lead a climbing party to the summit of Mount Erebus, 13,200 feet, and later a sledging party to the neighbourhood of the South Magnetic Poles, both of which objects were satisfactorily accomplished. In the execution of the long sledge journey, including relays, over 1200 miles were covered on foot, partly over broken sea-ice and splintered glacier ice. This was accom­plished without any supporting party, dogs, or mechanical aid. In the end a tragedy was narrowly averted by a miraculous deliverance when, in February, 1909, the “ Nimrod,” whilst searching for David’s overdue party along an almost unknown coast, which was largely infested with pack-ice, came in sight of a small sledge flag erected as a beacon for succour. Once on board the “ Nimrod ” David rallied quickly and returned to civilization seemingly no worse in health for his great privations.

A great welcome awaited him on return to Sydney. He found that the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science had, during his absence, awarded him the Mueller Medal. Needless to remark, the University Senate overlooked his delinquency in absenting himself without leave.

His story of sledging exploits immediately appeared as several chapters in Shackleton’s book The Heart of the , but the more seriousscientific record occupied all his available time during several succeeding years. At this stage he received the medals of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Scottish Geographical Society and the King’s Polar M edal; also the distinction of G.M.G. was conferred upon him. Oxford University conferred upon him an honorary D.Sc. degree in 1911.

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His interest in Antarctica always remained keen, and expressed itself in generous help afforded Scott and Mawson in stimulating public interest in their undertakings and in helping to raise the necessary funds. He was a member of the advisory committee of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14 and of the British, Australian, New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition of 1929-31.

Eminence in the scientific world was acknowledged in his election to the Presidency of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science in 1913, a time when, in view of the approaching visit of the British Association which was planned for the following year, the function of the office would be more than usually exacting. Nobody could better have filled the office, and notwithstanding the outbreak of hostilities during the progress of the meeting, the business of the occasion was satisfactorily concluded.

An incident of this meeting recently recorded (1) illustrates David’s broadmindedness and high ideals. “ David was conversing with Dr. Albrecht Penck when a pressman sought an interview. The subject of the great war which had just broken out obtruded itself, and David, placing his arm around the shoulders of his German colleague, observed,‘ All men of science are brothers.’ This remark so impressed the members of the German Entomological Society, that with David’s name and date, August 1914, attached, it appears on the official correspondence and publications of the Society.”

Further awards came to him in the year 1915, including the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London and the Conrad Malte-Brun Prize of the Geographical Society of France.

The nation’s need appealed irresistably to David’s deep sense of patriotism and thenceforth for four years the war claimed his whole attention.

He was largely concerned in the raising of an Australian Mining Corps which rendered a good account of itself on the Western Front. With the rank of Major, he left with this Corps for Europe early in 1916. On arrival in France he became geological adviser to the Controller in Mining in the First, Second, and Third Armies. In September, 1916, he met with a serious accident at Vimy, falling some 70 feet down a vertical shaft owing to the failure of the windlass. Though the injuries he received responded to treatment, he suffered certain permanent disability which inevitably tended to shorten his life. After convalescence he was attached to General Headquarters as geological adviser to the Inspector of Mines and with Captain W. B. R. King was responsible for all the geological work relating to tunnelling and water supply in connexion

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with the British Armies in France. He was mentioned in despatches, promoted to Lieut.-Colonel, and awarded the D.S.O. in 1918. Subse­quently, in 1920, the distinction of K.B.E. was conferred on him. Other awards that came to him about this period were the Clark Medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales (1917), the Hon. D.Sc. degree of Manchester University (1919), and the Hon. LL.D. degree of the University of Wales (1921).

When the Australian National Research Council was inaugurated in 1919, David was unanimously elected its first president and devoted much time thereafter promoting the welfare and organization thereof.

On resuming duties at Sydney University in 1919, David took more definite steps towards the compilation of a comprehensive and authorita­tive work embracing the geology of the whole Commonwealth. This project had long commanded his interest and in preparation for which many of his investigations had trended for some two decades past. Henceforth every opportunity was seized to further this object. One of his principal activities at this time was concerned in the correlation of formations which had been encountered in the various States of the Commonwealth and hitherto independently described. This under­taking involved much time and great cost. Fortunately, the load was eventually lightened by a welcome donation to the University funds with the object of providing a locum tenens for a year or two to allow David to visit far-afield areas of the Commonwealth.

From the end of 1924, upon his retirement as Emeritus Professor of Geology in the University of Sydney, his whole time was devoted to the great work in hand. This immense task of crystallizing geological knowledge of a Continent into a concise and connected story was obviously a gigantic work. In order to advance the project more rapidly and to achieve a more comprehensive result, he enlisted the co-operation of a number of his colleagues whose specialization made them authorities in various phases of the subject.

The years 1926 and 1927 were spent in England where he set to work in earnest to reduce and co-ordinate for publication the voluminous data amassed in preparation therefor. Again, on this occasion he was the recipient of many new honours, including the Patron’s Medal of the Royal Geographical Society (1926), Hon. D.Sc. of St. Andrews (1926), Hon. D.Sc. of the University of Wales (1926), Hon. Sc.D. of Cambridge (1926), and Hon. Fellow of New College, Oxford (1926). Unfortunately, at this time his health, which had suffered from war service, gave indications of further regression. Other circumstances also conspired to compel him to return to Australia in 1927.

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After his return to Sydney the work advanced slowly but was soon still fuither checked by the progressive onslaught of rheumatic arthritis, from which, in the closing years of his life, David was to suffer severely. The work had, by 1931, reached a stage when a summarized up-to-date version of the field geological data of the Commonwealth could be published. Publication took the form of a comprehensive geological map with an accompanying volume modestly entitled Explanatory Notes, which is, in fact, an epitome of the geology of the Commonwealth. The work reveals a fine literary style, attractive and eloquent. Concluding with a reference to the sketchy nature of the story, owing to the limited data yet available and the imperfections of the geological record, it ends on a note characteristic of David, “ . . . a tale which will surely never all be told. Yet just therein lies its charm, for it is full of the old, and for us ever new, ever changing, yet not wholly elusive, mystery and wonder of the world around us. To attain to absolute truth we neither aspire nor desire, content, however faint and weary, to be still pursuing, for in the pursuit itself we find an exceeding great reward.”

Thanks to the co-operation of the Commonwealth Government, the map, with accompanying sections, is reproduced in first-class style and stands as a monument alike to Sir Edgeworth David and to the progress of geological knowledge of a region somewhat larger than the United States of America.

The completion of the more extended version of his magnum opus was interrupted by death. Fortunately, the Commonwealth Government has taken steps to secure the appearance of the projected volumes. The actual work involved is being undertaken by his geological colleagues at Sydney University.

Next in interest to the investigation of evidences of past glacial climates in the Australian geological record, the subject which claimed David’s special attention during the later years of his life, was that of search for fossil evidences of life in the Pre-Cambrian terrains of the neighbourhood of Adelaide. In what appears to be the upper limit of the local Pre- Cambrian sediments, he, some years ago, recorded impressions of a fragmentary nature which he determined as relics of crustacean life. He more recently came upon coarser and still more obscure impressions at a much lower horizon ; these, also, he believed to be fragments of crus­tacean or proto-crustacean life. With the aid of grants from the Royal Society and the Geological Society of London, he was still investigating this fascinating problem at the time of his death.

During the last couple of years of his life, though so crippled and acutely suffering, his spirit rose above infirmity. Concentrated upon the

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advancement of knowledge he pressed forward still with vigour and a command of his subject till the last. With heroic fortitude he thus carried on, almost daily wending his way painfully to the University, until, eventually, having received some shock on alighting from a tram, he arrived at his rooms in a state of temporary collapse. From this he soon recovered ; but a few days later succumbed to static pneumonia.

A state funeral with military honours followed. It is rarely that the life work of a citizen inspires such notable addresses as were delivered on that occasion. One of the obituary addresses from the pulpit concluded with the words : “ The Professor, ever seeking to find and to interpret that Something which is beyond the ranges of time and knowledge, has gone forward in search of new disclosures. Whither he has gone we cannot see—but we know the way that he has taken and we can follow after him.”

In the realization of a lifetime of service and achievement, Sir Edge- worth David was greatly helped by a very able wife, formerly Miss Caroline M. Mallett, one-time student of Girton College, Cambridge. They met as fellow passengers on the R.M.S. Potosi when voyaging to Australia in 1882. She accompanied him on the coral-boring expedition to Funafuti and subsequently published in book form an interesting account of their life on the atoll.

Sir Edgeworth is survived by Lady David, two daughters, and a son, who, in 1917, as Captain in the R.A.M.C., won the M.C. but was severely wounded.

Already a number of notices relating to Sir Edgeworth David’s death has been published. The following have come under notice in preparing this article :

(1) “ Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth David,” by Dr. Charles Anderson. The Australian Museum Magazine, vol. 5, No. 8 (1934), pp. 283-285.

(2) “ Notes on the Life of a Great Australian Scientist,” by Professor L. A. Cotton and Assistant Professor W. R. Browne. Published by the Royal Society of New South Wales.

(3) “ Sir Edgeworth David,” by E. C. Andrews. The Science Journal, Sydney.(4) “ An Appreciation of Sir T. W. Edgeworth David,” by Rev. D. J. Flockhard in The

New South Wales Presbyterian of September 26, 1934.(5) “ The late Sir Edgeworth David ” in The Sydney Mail of September 5, 1934.(6) “ Eminent Living Geologists : Professor Sir T. W. Edgeworth David.” (Prepared by

Professor W. N. Benson.) GeoL Mag., vol. 59, pp. 4-13 (1922).

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Published works of Sir Edgeworth David subsequent to 1921*

1922 “ Varve 55 Shales of Australia. Amer. J . Sci., vol. 3, pp. 115-116.1922 Occurrence of Remains of Small Crustacea in the Proterozoic (?) or Lower Cambrian (?)

Rocks of Reynella, near Adelaide. Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Aust., vol. 46, pp. 6-8.1923 Report to Glacial Research Committee concerning the Glacial evidence at Crown

Point, Central Australia : by David and Howchin. Rep. Aust. Ass. Adv. Sci., vol. 16, pp. 74-94.

1924 Notes on the discovery of glacial erratics and tillite by T. Blatchford and H. W. B. Talbotin the Kimberley Area of W.A. Rep. Aust. Ass. Adv. Sci., vol. 17, pp. 77-80.

1924 Report of Glacial Committee. Rep. Aust. Ass. Adv. Sci., vol. 47, pp. 64-66.1926 Cretaceous Glaciation in Central Australia : by Woolnough and David. Quart. J. Geol.

Soc., vol. 82, pp. 332-351.1927 The Tasmanian Tektite (Darwin glass) : by David, Summers, and Ampt. Proc. Roy. Soc.

Vic., vol. 39 (new series), Part II (1927), pp. 167-190.1927 Notes on the Geological Horizon of the Archaeocyathinae. Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Aust.,

vol. 51, pp. 410-413.1928 Notes on Newly Discovered Fossils in the Adelaide Series (Lipalian?), South Australia,

Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Aust., vol. 52, pp. 191-210.1928 Report of the Glacial Phenomena Committee : by David and others. Aust. and N.Z-

Ass. Adv. Sci., vol. 19, pp. 95-102.1929 Further notes on the Newly Discovered Fossils in the Adelaide Series (Lipalian on

Proterozoic), South Australia. Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Aust., vol. 53, pp. 1-4.1930 Report on Evidence of Glacial Action in the strata associated with the Ashford Coal

seam, New South Wales. Aust. and N .Z • Ass. Adv. Sci., vol. 20, pp. 84-86.1931 Upper Palaeozoic Glaciations of Australia : by David and Sussmilch. Bull. Geol. Soc.

Amer., vol. 42, pp. 481-522.1932 Geologically coloured map of the Commonwealth and volume of explanatory notes to

accompany a New Geological map of the Commonwealth of Australia. Pub. Sydney. 1932 Report of the Glacial Phenomena Committee : by David and others. Aust. and N.Z-Ass.

Adv. Sci., vol. 21, pp. 460-466.

* A full list of Sir Edgeworth David’s work up to the year 1920 is to be found in the article by Professor W. N. Benson, Source 6, cited above.

D. Mawson.