32 Facts About Edgeworth David

Edgeworth David was knighted for his role in World War 1.

Edgeworth David was born on 28 January 1858, in St Fagans near Cardiff, Wales, the eldest son of the Rev William Edgeworth David, a fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, a classical scholar and naturalist and his wife Margaret Harriette.

At the age of 12, Edgeworth David went to Magdalen College School, Oxford in 1870.

In 1891, Edgeworth David was appointed Professor of Geology at the University of Sydney, a position he held until 1924.

Edgeworth 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.

Edgeworth David's department was housed in a small cottage, its equipment was poor, and he had no lecturers or demonstrators; but he gradually got better facilities and built up his department.

That year, Edgeworth David was elected president of the Royal Society of New South Wales.

In 1896, Edgeworth David went to the Pacific atoll of Funafuti as part of an expedition under Professor William Sollas of Oxford in order to take borings which it was hoped would settle the question of the formation of coral atolls.

In 1897, Edgeworth David led a second expedition which succeeded in reaching a depth of 557 feet after which he had to return to Sydney.

Edgeworth David then organised a third expedition in 1898 which, under the leadership of Dr Alfred Edmund Finckh, was successful in carrying the bore to 1114 feet.

Edgeworth David's reputation was growing in Europe, and in 1899 he was awarded the Bigsby Medal by the Geological Society of London, and in 1900 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society.

In 1904, Edgeworth David was elected president of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science which met in Dunedin, and in 1910 re-elected to presidency of the Royal Society of New South Wales.

Edgeworth David attended the International Geological Congress held in Mexico in 1906; on his way back to Australia visiting the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, and studying the effect of the San Francisco earthquake.

In mid-1907, Edgeworth David was invited to join Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic Nimrod Expedition, and, in December, won Australian government funding for the expedition.

From 5 to 11 March 1908, Edgeworth David led the first ascent of Mount Erebus, the only active volcano in Antarctica.

Edgeworth David led the summit party consisting of Mawson, Alistair Mackay and himself, and there was a supporting party of three which it was afterwards decided should attempt to reach the summit.

When Edgeworth 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, Edgeworth 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.

Edgeworth David wrote his Narrative of the Magnetic Pole Journey, which appeared in the second volume of Shackleton's Heart of the Antarctic.

In 1910, Edgeworth David became a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, and visiting England in connection with the scientific results of the Antarctic expedition, Oxford University awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

In 1913, Edgeworth David was elected president of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science for the second time and in 1926, was presented with the Royal Geographical Society's Patron's Medal.

When World War I broke out in 1914, Edgeworth David was a strenuous supporter of the war effort, supporting the campaign for conscription.

In January 1918, Edgeworth David was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and in November he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

In September 1920, Edgeworth David was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services during the war.

Edgeworth David took up a long-cherished project, the writing of a definitive work, The Geology of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Edgeworth David died in 1934 without being able to complete this work and was given a state funeral.

The mineral davidite is named after him, as was the Edgeworth David Building at the University of Sydney and Edgeworth David Avenue in Hornsby, New South Wales where he spent his later years.

Edgeworth David has been depicted on two Australian postage stamps.

The Edgeworth David Building at Tighes Hill TAFE campus in the New South Wales Hunter Valley is named in his honour.

Edgeworth David Island, lying off Davis Peninsula in the Shackleton Ice Shelf in Antarctica, is named for him.

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

Edgeworth David Avenue is an east-west road bridging the Hornsby Shire suburbs of Hornsby, Waitara and Wahroonga.