Ralph Tate (11 March 1840 – 20 September 1901) was a British-born botanist and geologist, who was later active in Australia.

Early life

Tate was born at Alnwick in Northumberland, the son of Thomas Turner Tate (1807–1888), a teacher of mathematics and science, and his wife Frances (née Hunter). He was nephew to George Tate (1805–1871), naturalist and archaeologist, an active member of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club. Tate was educated at the Cheltenham Training College and at the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...

Scientific career

In 1861 Tate was appointed teacher of natural science at the Philosophical Institution in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

. There he studied

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

, publishing his ''Flora Belfastiensis'' in 1863, while also investigating the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

and

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...

rocks of Antrim, the results of which he presenting to the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. In 1864 Tate was appointed assistant at the museum of that society. In 1866 he wrote three botanical papers, and also published ''A Plain and Easy Account of the Land and Freshwater Mollusks of Great Britain''. In 1867 he went on an exploring expedition to

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. In 1871 he was appointed to the mining school established by the Cleveland ironmasters first at Darlington and later at Redcar. Here he made a special study of the

Lias Lias may refer to: Geology * Lias Formation, a geologic formation in France *Lias Group, a lithostratigraphic unit in western Europe * Early Jurassic, an epoch People * Godfrey Lias, British author * Mohd Shamsudin Lias (born 1953), Malaysian ...

and its fossils, in conjunction with the Rev. J. F. Blake, the results being published in an important work, ''The Yorkshire Lias'' (1876), in which the life-history of the strata was first worked out in detail. In 1875 Tate was appointed Elder Professor of natural science at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

in South Australia, teaching botany,

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

and geology. He became vice-president and then as president (1878–1879) of the Philosophical Society. It changed name to the

Royal Society of South Australia The Royal Society of South Australia (RSSA) is a learned society whose interest is in science, particularly, but not only, of South Australia. The major aim of the society is the promotion and diffusion of scientific knowledge, particularly in rel ...

in 1880 with Tate as its first president in that year Tate encouraged members to send in original papers, personally contributing nearly 100 papers to its ''Transactions and Proceedings''. In 1882 Tate first travelled to the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

and made a valuable report on its geological and mineralogical characteristics. In 1883 he became a fellow of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

, and in 1888 was president of the biological section at the meeting of the

Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science The Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) is an organisation that was founded in 1888 as the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science to promote science. It was modelled on the British As ...

. Five years later Tate was president of the meeting of this association held at Adelaide. He was also in 1893 elected a foundation vice-president of the

Australasian Institute of Mining Engineers The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) provides services to professionals engaged in all facets of the global minerals sector and is based in Carlton, Victoria, Australia. History The Institute had its genesis in 1893 with ...

. Tate gave special attention to the Recent and Tertiary mollusca of Australia, and discovered evidence of

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate be ...

of southern Australia at Hallett Cove. He published his valuable ''Handbook of the Flora of Extratropical South Australia'' in 1890. In 1893 he was awarded the

Clarke Medal The Clarke Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of New South Wales, the oldest learned society in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, for distinguished work in the Natural sciences. The medal is named in honour of the Reverend William Branw ...

by the Royal Society of New South Wales. In 1894 he was a member of the Horn Expedition to Central Australia, writing the palaeontology report in collaboration with J. A. Watt, the general geology report, and the botany report with

Joseph Maiden Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the genus ''Eucalyptus''. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing ...

Late life

Tate paid a visit to England at the end of 1896 partly for the good of his health, but early in 1901 it began to fail again and he died on 20 September 1901. He was married twice, survived by his second wife, one son and two daughters from his first marriage, and two sons and a daughter from the second.

Recognition

The Ralph Tate Society of the

was formed in 1938 to promote original research in natural history by field excursions, similar to the McCoy Society of the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

Notes

References

* * *A. R. Alderman,
Tate, Ralph (1840–1901)
, '' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Vol. 6, MUP, 1976, pp 243–244 *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tate, Ralph British geologists Australian geologists British botanists Botanists active in Australia People from Alnwick 1840 births 1901 deaths Fellows of the Linnean Society of London University of Adelaide faculty British emigrants to Australia