19 Facts About Raymond Priestley

Sir Raymond Edward Priestley was an English geologist and early Antarctic explorer.

Raymond Priestley was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, where he helped found The Raymond Priestley Centre on the shores of Coniston Water in the Lake District National Park.

Raymond Priestley was born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, in 1886, the second son and second of eight children of Joseph Edward Priestley, headmaster of Tewkesbury grammar school, and his wife, Henrietta Rice.

Raymond Priestley was educated at his father's school and taught there for a year before reading geology at University College, Bristol.

Raymond Priestley collected mineral and lichen samples from the region including islands in the Ross Sea, the North face of the Mount Erebus volcano, and mountains near the Ferrar Glacier.

Raymond Priestley was part of the advance team that laid the food and fuel depots for Shackleton's nearly successful attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole in 1909.

Raymond Priestley returned to the Antarctic as a member of Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, after being recruited by Scott when the Terra Nova arrived in Sydney.

Raymond Priestley served in the British Army during World War I, receiving a commission as a temporary second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 5 September 1914.

Raymond Priestley was seconded on 9 December 1914, and was appointed an adjutant and promoted to temporary lieutenant on 15 April 1915.

Raymond Priestley showed utter disregard of danger during his duty on the lines over the whole of the shelled area.

Raymond Priestley wrote "Breaking the Hindenburg Line", an account of 46 Division's spectacular attack during the Battle of St Quentin Canal.

Raymond Priestley relinquished his temporary commission on 17 November 1920, reverting to the permanent rank of lieutenant in the Territorial Force.

Raymond Priestley was promoted to captain on 21 June 1922 and resigned his commission on 30 June 1926, retaining the rank of major.

Raymond Priestley was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne from 1935 until resigning in 1938 on a matter of principle after one of several confrontations with the Chancellor.

Raymond Priestley returned to Britain to be Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham.

Raymond Priestley was knighted for Services to Education in the 1949 New Year Honours.

Raymond Priestley revisited Antarctica in 1956 and 1959 and in the latter year was awarded the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, for whom he was president from 1961 to 1963.

Raymond Priestley died, aged 87, on 24 June 1974 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, survived by his two daughters.

Items from Raymond Priestley are in the collection of Tewkesbury Borough Museum.