Cecil Edgar Tilley FRS Hon

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This so ...

PGS (14 May 1894 – 24 January 1973) was an Australian- British petrologist and geologist.

Life

He was born in

Unley Unley is an inner-southern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, within the City of Unley. The suburb is the home of the Sturt Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Unley neighbours Adelaide Park Lands, Full ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

, the youngest child of John Thomas Edward Tilley, a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and his wife

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

-born wife, Catherine Jane Nicholas. Cecil was educated at Adelaide High School, then studied Chemistry and Geology under

William Rowan Browne William Rowan Browne FAA (11 December 1884 – 1 September 1975) was an Australian geologist, author of ''The Geology of the Commonwealth of Australia''. Early life Browne was born in Lislea, County Londonderry, Ireland; both parents were schoo ...

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 ...

, and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public university, public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one o ...

, graduating in 1915. In 1916, during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, he went to

South Queensferry Queensferry, also called South Queensferry or simply "The Ferry", is a town to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Traditionally a royal burgh of West Lothian, it is administered by the City of Edinburgh council area. It lies ten miles to the nort ...

near

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

to work as a chemist Department of Explosives Supply. He returned to Australia in December 1918. He won an

Exhibition of 1851 The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...

scholarship to the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1919, where he studied petrology under Alfred Harker, and completed his PhD in 1922. From 1923 he was employed at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, first as demonstrator in petrology, and then lecturer in petrology in 1929. In 1931, following the retirement of Harker, he was appointed as the first Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology. Most of the remainder of his life was spent in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, though he spent 1938–9 in Australia and visited regularly after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. In 1929, while investigating a

volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcanic object created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if rising volatile-charged m ...

at Scawt Hill, near

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight roll-on roll-off port. Larne is administered by Mid ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

for the

Mineralogical Magazine The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland began in 1876. Its main purpose is to disseminate scientific knowledge of the Mineral Sciences (mineralogy) as it may be applied to the fields of crystallography, geochemistry, petrology, env ...

he identified and named the new minerals larnite and

scawtite Scawtite is a hydrous calcium silicate mineral with carbonate, formula: Ca7(Si3O9)2CO3·2H2O. It crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system as thin plates or flat prisms. Scawtite was first described in 1929 for an occurrence at Scawt Hill in N ...

. In 1938 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and served as their Vice President 1949/50. He won the Society's Royal Medal in 1967. From 1948 to 1951 he was President of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain. He was President of the

Geological Society 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 ...

1949/50. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

in 1957. He died at home in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

on 24 January 1973 aged 78, and his body was cremated.

Family

In 1928 he married Irene Doris Marshall at Holy Trinity Church, Kingsway, London. They had one daughter.

Publications

*'' Alfred Harker 1859-1939'' (1940) co-written with Albert Seward *'' Waldemar Christofer Brogger 1851-1940'' (1941) *''Hawaiian Volcanoes'' (1961) *''Origin of Basalt Magmas'' (1962)

References

External links

G. A. Chinner, ''Memorial of Cecil Edgar Tilley 14 May 1894 – 24 January 1973,'' American Mineralogist, Volume 59, pages 427-437, 1974

Australian Dictionary of Biography 1894 births 1973 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Wollaston Medal winners University of Adelaide alumni Scientists from Adelaide Royal Medal winners Presidents of the International Mineralogical Association Australian emigrants to the United Kingdom Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences University of Sydney alumni Australian people of English descent People educated at Adelaide High School Professorship of Mineralogy and Petrology (Cambridge) {{geologist-stub