Kitson, Albert Ernest (1868 - 1937)

Summary

Sir Albert Kitson joined the Victorian Public Service (VPS) as a clerk in 1886. From 1899 to 1904, although still employed as a clerk, he carried out geological field work for the VPS. This work inspired him to take up part-time studies in geology, mining and surveying at the Working Men's College (Melbourne) and at the University of Melbourne. In 1904 Kitson was promoted to senior field geologist and headed many more geological surveys and published widely. His two most noted surveys were in the Gold Coast where areas of manganese and diamonds were discovered, and in Nigeria where rich coal deposits were found. In 1930 he retired from the VPS and returned to England. There he immediately took up the position of geological advisor to the Colonial Office and later joined the boards of several mining companies. Kitson was a Fellow and Lyell medal recipient of the Geological Society of London and he was knighted (KBE) in 1927.

Details

Chronology

c. 1878

Life event - Migrated to Australia (Victoria) with family

1886 - 1889

Career position - Clerk at the Victorian Postmaster-General's Department

1889 - 1896

Career position - Clerk at the Victorian Department of Lands and Survey

1896 - 1904

Career position - Clerk at the Victorian Department of Mines and Water Supply

1897 -

Award - Fellow of the Geological Society of London (FGS)

1899 - 1904

Career position - Geological field work including the survey of Buchan Caves in East Gippsland (1900), Victoria

1904 - 1906

Career position - Senior Field Geologist in the Department of Mines and Water Supply

1906 - 1911

Career position - Principal Surveyor on the Mineral Survey of Southern Nigeria

1913 - 1930

Career position - Director of the Gold Coast Geological Survey

1916

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus kitsoniana Maiden was named in his honour

1918

Award - Wollaston fund award received from the Geological Society of London

1918

Award - Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), Britain

1922

Award - Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)

1927

Award - Lyell Medal received from the Geological Society of London

1927

Award - Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE), Britain

1929

Career position - President of the C (Geology) Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

1930

Career position - Geological Advisor to the Colonial Office in England

1930

Life event - Retired and returned to England

1934 - 1936

Career position - President of the Geologist's Association

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Book Sections

• Farrall, Lyndsay, 'Kitson, Sir Albert Ernest (1868-1937), Geologist' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds, vol. 9 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 617-618. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090619b.htm. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q4710154. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/243543311. Details
• 'Kitson, Albert Ernest (1868-1937)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1476105. Details

See also

• George, Alex S., Australian botanist's companion (Kardinya, W.A.: Four Gables Press, 2009), 671 pp. Details
• Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts: short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. Details