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From Hornsby Shire Historical Society

HORNSBY’S MOST ACCOMPLISHED RESIDENT, TANNATT EDGEWORTH DAVID
GEOLOGIST, WAR HERO, ANTARCTIC EXPLORER & A KNIGHT

Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth David was born in Wales in 1858. In 1880, he graduated from Oxford University with a Bachelor of Arts, before coming to Australia in 1882 to work as the assistant geologist surveyor for the NSW Government. He spent the next few years conducting field surveys in outback NSW before being asked to find new coal deposits in the Hunter Valley. After weeks of intensive surveying, he found the Greta Seam which was later described as one of the richest mineral discoveries made in eastern Australia. This yielded over £50,000,000 worth of coal up to 1949.

He became Professor of Geology at the University of Sydney in 1891, a position he held for more than 33 years (until 1924).

While travelling out to Australia on board the “Potosi”, Edgeworth David met his future wife, Miss Caroline Mallett (known as Cara), who was on her way to take up an appointment as principal of the Hurlstone Training College for female teachers. They were married on 30 July 1885, at St Pauls Church of England in Canterbury.

16 January 1909, he carried out his greatest achievement, as part Nimrod Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. The extraordinary part is that Professor David was not even supposed to be on the expedition. He had helped raise funds for the venture, including being instrumental in securing £5,000 from the Australian Government. David had also organized for two of his most talented former students to be part of the expedition, in Douglas Mawson and, Hornsby resident, Leo Cotton.

In the early morning on the day of Mawson and Cotton’s departure from Sydney for the Nimrod’s expedition to Antarctica, Tannatt Edgeworth David left his home in the Blue Mountains for Sydney. He went down to the Harbour to wish his former students farewell and, at the last moment, the urge to be part of this historic expedition proved too much and he jumped aboard the ship to join them.

However, his biggest problems were that he did not request leave from his job as a Professor of Geology at Sydney University and his wife had no idea he had just departed for Antarctica on an expedition that would last over a year. The crew flagged down the first ship they came across that was heading to Sydney, and David passed on two letters, one to be sent to the university and the other to his wife explaining his hasty decision and begging to be forgiven. David was welcomed on the Nimrod expedition and was immediately appointed the party's Chief Scientific Officer.

Once in Antarctica David, who was 50 years old, led two much younger explorers Douglas Mawson (27) and Alistair Mackay (29), as the trio became the first to reach the South Magnetic Pole. They achieved this after dragging sledges with food and equipment more than 800 kilometres, in a very dangerous difficult four-month journey.

The three men had also been part of a five-man party who were the first to climb to the summit of Mount Erebus, a continuously erupting volcano in Antarctica.
Edgeworth-David’s involvement and achievements in the 1907-09 Shackleton expedition to Antarctica made him known world-wide.

Back in Australia when WWI broke out in 1914, David was a strenuous supporter of the war effort, and also supported the much-debated campaign for conscription. In August 1915, after reading reports about mining operations and tunnelling during the Gallipoli campaign, David wrote a proposal to the Defence Minister, suggesting that the government raise a military force specifically to undertake mining and tunnelling. After his proposal was accepted, David used his advocacy and organisational abilities to set up the Australian Mining Corps, and on 25th October 1915, he was appointed as a Major in the Australian Army, at the age of 57. Professor David contributed significantly as he served on the Western Front, spending his time on geological investigations, using his expertise to advise on the construction of dugouts, trenches, and tunnels, the siting of wells for provision of pure drinking water from underground supplies, giving lectures, and producing maps. He was also instrumental in mining operations under German lines. The explosion of Messines-Wytchaete Ridge multi-mine system in June 1917, was the culmination of David’s tunnelling work. He was mentioned in dispatches three times, awarded the Distinguished Service Order and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

In 1920, David and his family moved to their final home, ‘Coringah’ in Burdett Street, Hornsby. At around this time he established the Geography Department at the University of Sydney and served as the first President of the Australian National Research Council. He was also enthusiastically involved in several local community organisations, particularly Hornsby RSL Sub-branch for which he became the inaugural patron.

Prior to relocating to Hornsby, Edgeworth David already had a strong interest in the Hornsby area, after he studied the rich geology around Old Mans Valley. This area went on to become Hornsby Quarry and was mined for its valuable blue metal for almost 100 years.

In 1924, David retired as Professor of Geology at the University of Sydney. The chair passed to his former student and fellow Hornsby resident, Leo Cotton, whose brother, Max Cotton, created Lisgar Gardens in Hornsby. Part of Leo’s Hornsby property became Florence Cotton Reserve, named after his daughter.
In another world first, Sir Tannatt Edgeworth David was the first person to write and lecture publicly about the serious impacts of Global Warming including via series of articles published in the New York Times in 1932. This deeply worried him up to his death two years later.

Edgeworth David collapsed at his desk at the University. He died of lobar pneumonia a few days later, on 28 August 1934, in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, aged 77. He was accorded a state funeral by the Commonwealth and New South Wales governments and was survived by his wife, son and two daughters. After a service at St Andrew's Anglican Cathedral, he was cremated with military honours.

Over his life David received many awards, honours and tributes, including a knighthood in September 1920. A 1924 article in “The Home” listed Edgeworth David as one of the “seven greatest living Australians”. In 1938, Hornsby Shire Council renamed Junction Road in Hornsby, Edgeworth David Avenue, in recognition of his contribution to the local district and as the Shire’s most accomplished resident.

In addition, a number of places have been named in his honour. Two of these places are Edgeworth David Base in Antarctica and the suburb of Edgeworth, in the Hunter.

In 1968, Edgeworth David was honoured on an Australia Post postage stamp.

In 1999, Hornsby Shire Council acquired the Edgeworth David property and refurbished the house. The extensive gardens were also restored and were officially opened to the public on 22nd August 2006 and the Hornsby house is heritage listed.

Throughout his life Edgeworth David actively encouraged women to achieve all of what they were capable of, particularly in the field of geology. So, it was no surprise when his daughter, Margaret McIntyre, became the first woman elected to the Parliament of Tasmania (1948) as well as being awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE). She was elected to parliament in a landslide as an independent.

Lady David (Cara) also had a long and distinguished career of service to the community. She was an early president of the Bush Book Club. During WW1 she campaigned vigorously and successfully for six o'clock closing of public houses and was president of the Women's National Movement for Social Reform, which focused on the eradication of venereal disease.

Her work on behalf of the New South Wales branch of the Girl Guides' Association was outstanding. She was a divisional commissioner from 1920, State commissioner in 1928-38 and, in 1934, was awarded the order of the Silver Fish—the highest honour for officers of the Girl Guide Movement. She also organised the purchase of Glengarry at Turramurra for its training headquarters and in 1934.

At 95 years of age, Lady David died at Hornsby on Christmas Day 1951.

A second daughter, Mary Edgeworth David, lived on a property next to her parents’ Hornsby home for most of her life and published many books. She died in Hornsby in 1987, at 98 years of age.