Taylor, Thomas Griffith

Born: 1 December 1880, Walthamstow, Essex, England

Died: 5 November 1963, Manly, Sydney

Family: Father, James Taylor BSc, WhSc, FCS, ARSM, metallurgical chemist, Government Metallurgist NSW; Mother, Lily Agnes Griffiths

Married: 8 July 1914, Queens College, University of Melbourne, Doris Marjorie Priestley (whose forebear, Joseph Priestley, discovered oxygen) (2 sons)

Education:
Private school in England
Miss Macaulays School
Sydney Grammar School
The Kings School
University of Sydney (Deas Thompson Scholarships in physics and Geology; 1851 Science Research scholarship)
1904 BSc (Geology and Physics)
1905 BE (Mining and Metallurgy)
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
1907 Senior Exhibitioner
1909 BA (Cantab) by research (thesis: The facies of the southern Antarctic littoral)
1910 Sudbury-Hardyman Prizeman
1916 DSc (Usyd) University Medal (thesis on Settlement of Australian Tropics)
1959 Hon Dlitt (Usyd)

Career:
1893 Arrived Sydney
1898 Clerk, Treasury
1907 Demonstrator, Geology and Physical Geography Department, University of Sydney
1910 to 1920 Commonwealth Government Meteorologist/Physiographer, Commonwealth Weather Service
1910 to 1912 Senior Geologist with Scotts Antarctic Expedition to the South Pole
1911 and 1912 Leader of the Western Parties, Scotts Antarctic Expedition
1912 Acting Commonwealth Geologist, Canberra; Fellow, Royal Geographical Society
1913 Royal Geographic Societys Medal for Exploration, Kings Polar Medal; elected Fellow, Royal Geographical Society of London
1914 to 1918 Lecturer in Meteorology, Commonwealth Flying School
1917 Royal Geographical Society of Queensland Thomson gold medal for thesis on Settlement of Australian Tropics
1917 to 1918 Lecturer, Physiography, University of Melbourne
1918 Syme Prize and medal for Studies in Australian Economics and Climatology; special grant from Advisory Council of Science and Industry to publish Australian Environment
1919 Member, Australian National Research Council; member, International Meteorological Committees on Agriculture, Aviation, Solar Radiation and Upper Air
July 1920 to 1928 Associate Professor and Foundation Head, Department of Geography, University of Sydney (first university geography department in Australia)
1923 Livingstone Centenary medal of the American Geographical Society
1927 Founding President, Geographical Society of New South Wales
1928 to 1935 Professor of Geography, University of Chicago
1935 to 1951 First Professor of Geography, University of Toronto
1938 President, geography section, British Association for the Advancement of Science
1940 First non-American President, Association of American Geographers
1942 Fellow, Royal Society of Canada
1948 Member interim council, Australian National University, advising on the establishment of research schools
1951 Retired; elected President, Canadian Association of Geographers; returned to Sydney
1954 Fellow, Australian Academy of Science
1959 First President, Institute of Australian Geographers

Also:
Instructor, Australian Physiography, University of Melbourne
Member, Commonwealth Advisory Committee of Aurora Relief Expedition
Member, Royal Society of New South Wales
Member, Round Table, Sydney group

Portrait by Doris Toovey held by the University of Sydney