Sir Raymond Edward Priestley (Major ) MC
BA, (1886-1974), geologist and later academic administrator,
was born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, on 20 July 1886, the second son and second of
eight children of Joseph Edward Priestley, headmaster of Tewkesbury grammar school, and
his wife, Henrietta Rice. Priestley was educated in his father's school and taught there
for a year before reading geology at University College, Bristol (1905-7), where he was
captain of hockey and in the cricket eleven.
The NIMROD Expedition 1907-09
At the end of his second year in the
university, a chance contact led to his joining the British Antarctic expedition of 1907-9
led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, sailing on the 'Nimrod'.
Expedition members
Standing; Debenham, Wright Sitting;
Taylor, Priestley
Nimrod
Although from a staunch Methodist
background, Priestley adapted well to expedition life with sailors, adventurers, and two
outstanding university geologists -T.W. Edgeworth David, and Douglas Mawson. Because of a
knee injury, Priestley spent more time caring for ponies, and less on geological fieldwork
than expected. The achievements of Shackleton, who reached a position 97 miles from the
south pole, and David, who attained the south magnetic pole, brought fame to the
expedition on its return. Priestley spent four months in England and contributed to the
geological sections of Shackleton's classic book, The Heart of the Antarctic
(1909), before returning to Sydney, Australia, in October to work with Edgeworth David on
volume 1 of the geological report which was published in 1914.
Read more about Shackleton's expedition
The TERRA NOVA Expedition
1910-13
Captain R.F. Scott recruited
Priestley when passing through Sydney to the Antarctic in 1910 for his 'TERRA
NOVA' expedition, during which he made the south pole shortly after Amundsen,
and lost his life on the return journey. Priestley joined the northern party under Victor
Campbell.
Priestley and Campbell at cape Adare
After spending 1911 at Cape Adare,
the six man party was landed 200 miles farther south for summer fieldwork with provisions
for eight weeks.
The ship was stopped by pack-ice from
returning to collect them, and the epic story of how the party survived, and then sledged
250 miles to the main party early in the following summer, is told in Priestley's book Antarctic
Adventure (1914; repr., 1974).
Antarctic Adventure
The TERRA NOVA at Ross Island
They survived the fierce winds by
digging a cave in a snow-drift. A line across the middle of the 12 foot by 9foot floor
separated the wardroom from the mess deck of three petty officers. By agreement, nothing
said on one side of the line could be 'heard' or answered by those on the other side.
Priestley considered this splendid training for dealing with unreasonable, irascible
professors in later life without loss of temper. His responsibility for the commissariat
in the ice cave in these circumstances, shows an early reputation for fairness and
reliability.
The TERRA NOVA on her return to
New Zealand
Read more about Scott's last expedition
Or
Excellent web site about Antarctica
that helps reference where these expeditions took place
On return, Priestley
matriculated as a pensioner in Christ's college, Cambridge, for a course of research
study.
The First World war intervened and he
served as adjutant at the Wireless Training Centre (1914-17), and then with the 46th
(North Midland) Divisional Signal Company R.E. in France. He was involved in the
celebrated, taking of the Riqueval Bridge over the St Quentin Canal, by the 137th Infantry
Brigade, a formidable section of the renowned 'Hindenberg Line'. He subsequently wrote an
account of this action, amongst others, 'Breaking The Hindenberg Line' (1919).
The triumphant 137th Infantry
Brigade on the Riqueval Bridge over the St Quentin Canal in 1918
During the war he won the MC, and on
10 April 1915, he married Phyllis Mary (d. 1961), daughter of William Boyle Boyd,
from Dunedin, New Zealand, the master of a barquentine; they had two daughters. After the
armistice he wrote the official record, The Work of the Royal Engineers 1914-19; The
Signal Service France (1919). An enormously technical book about all aspects of
communication during the Great War.
Read more about
The Signal Service
After return to Cambridge he
completed sections of British (Terra Nova) Antarctic Expedition, 1910-13; Glaciology
(1922), written jointly with Charles S. Wright, a classic of early glaceological
literature. A thesis on this subject brought him a BA in 1920, after which he studied
agriculture (diploma 1922) before becoming a fellow, 1923-34; honorary fellow, (1956).
Priestley's career then turned to
academic administration. He was secretary to the board of research studies as assistant
registrary (1924-7), first assistant registrary and secretary to the general board
(1927-34), and secretary general of the faculties (1934-5). His keen interest in the
British Commonwealth led him to become first vice-chancellor of Melbourne University
(1935-8) before returning to Britain as vice-chancellor of Birmingham University
(1938-52). In these posts he took a deep interest in student unions. Although he
felt a lack of support from industry and government in Melbourne, he left a fine students'
union building in Birmingham, thanks to public support and despite the Second World War,
the university doubled in size, started new departments, and recruited some outstanding
professors. In the wider field Priestley helped found the University College of the West
Indies and was chairman of the Imperial College of tropical Agriculture, Trinidad
(1949-53).
After his retirement to Bredon's
Norton near Tewkesbury in 1952, Priestley continued his public service, first as chairman
of the royal commission on the civil service (1953-5). The Priestley commission accepted
the principal and set out guidelines to link pay through the civil service with equivalent
posts in industry - a concept which helped maintain the flow of first class people to the
civil service, possibly to the detriment of industry.
Priestley never lost his love of the
Antarctic and often lectured on his experiences to undergraduates in Cambridge, to
servicemen in the Second World War, and to many others.He helped his expedition colleague
Frank Debenham to found the Scott Polar Research Institute in the University of Cambridge
in 1920, but his academic activities gave him little time for polar affairs until
retirement. From 1955 to 1958 he deputized as acting director, London headquarters of the
Falkland Island dependencies survey (later the British Antarctic survey) for Vivian Fuchs
during his absence during the trans-Antarctic expedition. His presidential address to the
British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1956 was titled 'Twentieth-century
man against the Antarctic'. He twice visited the Antarctic again, with the duke of
Edinburgh to the Falkland islands dependencies in 1956 and to Victoria Land with the US
Navy in 1959, when he visited his early expedition area.
Victoria Land with the US Navy in 1959
During the former trip on the Britannia,
his fondness for talking about polar subjects led the ornithologists and the duke to call
him the 'Lesser Polar Backchat' but this was soon upgraded to 'Greater Polar Backchat'. Antarctic
Research (1964), edited by Priestley, R. J. Adie, and G. de Q. Robin, reflected the
recognition and consolidation of British research activities in the Antarctic
following the International Geophysical Year (1957-8), Fuch's success, and Priestley's
influence as acting director.
Priestley's last considerable public
office was as president of the Royal Geographical Society (1961-3). Thereafter the
effects of old war injuries kept him increasingly in bredon's Norton, where he enjoyed
family life and visitors while remaining mentally alert and active to the end. He
was a patient man of modest tastes and a sense of humour whose sympathetic and realistic
judgements left their mark on twentieth-century education and research.
he was knighted in 1949, and held the
Polar medal and bar and the founder's medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He held
honorary doctorates from Melbourne, New Zealand, St Andrews, Natal, Dalhousie Birmingham,
Malaya, Sheffield and the West Indies. He died in the Nuffield Nursing Home, Cheltenham,
on 24 June 1974.
Gordon. de Quetteville. Robin, rev.
(Ex Director of the Polar Research
Institute)
Link to web page on G. de Q. Robin
This reference is published in the 'Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography'.
From the earliest times to the year 2000.
Edited by H.C.G. Matthew and Brian
Harrison. Volume 45.
Oxford University Press.
