Tannatt William Edgeworth David

Tannatt William Edgeworth David was born in Wales in 1858 and was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford. He studied geology at New College, Oxford, and the Royal College of Science, London. His work in the geological field soon attracted attention and in 1882 he was appointed assistant geological surveyor to the Government of New South Wales. His time with the Geological Survey was particularly noticeable for his significant discoveries in economic geography, especially the discovery of valuable coal and tin deposits.

In 1891, David was appointed to the Chair of Geology and Physical Geography at the University of Sydney, attaining world wide recognition among his fellow geologists for his research work on glacial epochs. Shackleton, in Australia en route to the Antarctic in 1907, asked David to join the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909 (leader Ernest Henry Shackleton), as geologist. The expedition wintered on Ross Island and in 1908 Shackleton selected David as a member of the summit party for the first ascent of Mount Erebus (3794 metres).

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