Person
Kitson, Albert Ernest (1868 - 1937)
CBE CMG KBE FGS
- Born
- 21 March 1868
Manchester, Lancashire, England - Died
- 8 March 1937
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England - Occupation
- Geologist
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.
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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, 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, 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, Geological Society of London
- 1927
- Award - Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE), Britain
- 1929
- Career position - President, 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, 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, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (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
McCarthy, G.J.
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 15 June 2022
- Foundation Supporter - Committee to Review Australian Studies in Tertiary Education