| Administrative History | Tannatt William Edgeworth David was born on 28 January 1858 in his father’s rectory at St Fagan’s, near Cardiff, Wales. He was home schooled by his father, the Reverend William David, until 1870 when he became a boarder at Magdalen School, Oxford, at the age of 12. In 1876, he won a classical scholarship to New College Oxford where among his teachers were John Ruskin and Joseph Prestwich, both of whose geological lectures influenced the young David. Between 1878 and 1879, David took sabbatical leave from university when his health broke down, due in part to TB but also the mental anxiety over his religious beliefs and his reluctance to follow his father into the church.
In 1880 David resumed his studies at Oxford, eventually gaining a BA without honours in December of that year. He was likely, however, to have been distracted as he was increasingly spending his time on geological study, encouraged by his relative William Ussher and Dr Charles Vachell.
David left Britain in October 1882 on the SS Potosi to take up an appointment as Assistant Geological Surveyor to the Government of New South Wales, Australia, meeting his future wife Cara Mallett on the voyage. For the next nine years, David’s work for the Survey of NSW primarily concerned the locating, appraising and mapping of commercially viable sources of tin and coal. His most notable achievement during this period was his survey of the Hunter Valley coal fields, which uncovered a rich, thick seam of workable gas making coal at Deep (Swamp) Creek, near Abermain, NSW. The discovery, which through David’s quick action meant it was kept under government control, resulted in the establishment of a coal industry in the region. In 2001, the area was still producing 100 million tons of coal per annum.
FUNAFUTI
Charles Darwin, in his ‘On the Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs’ (1842), had theorised that reefs were formed by coral gradually building up on a slowly subsiding volcanic island. Therefore if one drilled underneath an atoll, one should find the remains of the original extinct volcano. Although widely accepted over the years, the theory had never successfully been tested but in 1896, under the auspices of a Royal Society Coral Reef Committee, the first of three expeditions, all organised and funded with David’s help, set out.
The Pacific coral atoll of Funafuti, in the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu) was chosen, but the first expedition led by William J Sollas had to be abandoned when the boring equipment broke. David was not part of this expedition, but after securing the funding for a second attempt, he and his wife Cara arrived in Funafuti in June 1897. Progress was slow as the drill equipment kept breaking and heavy silt consistently flooded the borehole. By September, when David had to return to Australia, the boring depth was 557 feet—tantalisingly close to Darwin’s estimate of 500-600 feet. The third and final expedition was organised for 1898, this time led by A E Finckh achieving a bore depth of 1114 feet but still not reaching the bottom. Despite this, the geological surveys, dredging samples and drilling cores contributed significantly to the understanding of the composition of coral atolls and in proving Darwin’s theory. The work would also win David the Society’s Bigbsy Medal in 1899.
ANTARCTIC
In December 1907, the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) arrived in Australia. Shackleton had accompanied Captain Robert Falcon Scott on the national Antarctic expedition of 1901-1904, but was disappointingly invalided home early. He had spent the next three years attempting to fundraise for a return expedition with limited success. David, with his political contacts, quickly managed to secure £5000 from the Australian government, enabling the expedition party to set out for New Zealand on 21 December 1907, to pick up the Nimrod sealing ship which set sail in January 1908. David, just about to turn 50 years old, was in theory only to accompany the party on the voyage out to view the geography and geology of the area, then return with the ship. However, writing to his wife Cara when safely aboard, he claimed that Shackleton had unexpectedly invited him to take charge of the scientific side of the expedition and therefore was not going to return for the rest of the year.
David’s earliest geological papers were on the glacial features of his native Wales, and he continued to research and write on the effects of late Palaeozoic glaciation in Australia. The Antarctic expedition gave David the chance to study his beloved glacial geology up close as well as exhibiting his spirit for adventure and publicity (throughout the expedition he sent updates which were published in the national press). He led the first climb to the summit of the active volcano Mount Erebus (3795m) with limited experience and equipment in March 1908, and later that year in October, at the request of Shackleton, set out with Douglas Mawson and Alistair Forbes Mackay in an attempt to reach the South Magnetic Pole. The trip, around 2028 km in all, involved travelling across uncharted, dangerous terrain dragging their own laden sledges. Diminishing rations, the freezing conditions and altitude sickness took their toll, as well as David nearly tumbling down a crevasse, however the group reached (what they presumed was) their destination on 16 January 1909. The return journey proved even more perilous, with David having to relinquish command as his physical and mental health deteriorated. The party was eventually rescued by the Nimrod on 4 February 1909. David was met with a hero’s welcome on his return to Australia on 30 March 1909.
FIRST WORLD WAR
After war was officially declared in August 1914, David enthusiastically involved himself in patriotic activities, such as joining the Sydney University Rifles and taking on the presidency of the NSW branch of the Universal Service League which campaigned for compulsory Universal Service. Yet it was apparent to his wife Cara that David was itching to participate more directly in the war effort. The first step towards this aim, was the formation of an Australian Mining Corps which David and his academic colleague Professor E W Skeat convinced the Australian Government to set up. On its formal establishment in September 1915, David received his commission as Major at the mature age of 57 years, one of the oldest men to volunteer for the Allies.
David arrived, with the 1200 strong Corps, in France at the Western Front in May 1916, however his geological abilities were initially met with indifference by his senior officers. Despite this, he engaged his time quite independently going on various jaunts along the front line sometimes with the only officially appointed geologist in the British Army, the 26 year old Lieutenant William Bernard Robinson King (1889-1963), to familiarise himself with the local geological terrain and advising on tunnels, trenches and water wells. Although the Australian Corps was disbanded in May 1916, David’s efforts saw the fundamental importance of geology to military strategy in the theatre of war begin to be appreciated.
David avoided a number of near misses during his war service, including having a sandwich he was eating literally shot out of his hand, but on 25 September 1916, when he was being lowered down to investigate why a 100 foot water well which should have been close to the water table had run dry the apparatus failed and he plummeted to the bottom. He later wrote, “I got a fearful drop of about 70 feet vertically, onto the hard rock of the dry well. I had just time to prepare oneself calmly for instant death when the terrible crash came. I felt the end of my spine touch the rock bottom and expected that it would be crunched right up, but after my head and right elbow had been dashed against the chalk wall of the well, nothing else happened”. In fact David spent the next two months in hospital recovering from his injuries which included a head wound, fractured ribs and a ruptured urethra.
Indefatigable as ever, David returned to active service at the Front in November 1916, spending the rest of the war working with his now firm friend W B R King, who would later serve in the same capacity in the Second World War. He was awarded the DSO in 1918 and promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and in 1920 he was knighted.
On his return to Australia, David attempted to research a comprehensive book on the 'Geology of the Commonwealth of Australia'. The work was never published in his lifetime as he became increasingly distracted by other activities. He did however publish a 'Geological Map of the Commonwealth of Australia' in 1931 to great acclaim. His larger, proposed book was eventually issued by W R Browne in 1950, although the contents were more Browne’s work than David’s.
David collapsed and died on 28 August 1934, after a fall when alighting a tram at Sydney University. Such was his achievements that he was accorded a state funeral on 30 August 1934, the only geologist known to have received such an honour. |