Edmund Oswald Thiele (1874–1971), later known as Sir Edmund Oswald Teale KBE (he changed the spelling of his surname in 1917) was a prominent

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

from

Doncaster, Victoria Doncaster () is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 16 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Manningham local government area. Doncaster recorded a population of 25,020 at the 2021 censu ...

, Australia. He was created a knight in 1936 during Colonial service in

Tanganyika Territory Tanganyika was a colonial territory in East Africa which was administered by the United Kingdom in various guises from 1916 to 1961. It was initially administered under a military occupation regime. From 20 July 1922, it was formalised into a L ...

Career

He began a Geological survey in the German colony of Tanganyika in 1908 but was obliged to return to Australia 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 fightin ...

. During this time he found employment as a temporary Lecturer in geology 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 ...

, replacing Sir

Douglas Mawson Sir Douglas Mawson OBE FRS FAA (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, he was a key expedition leader duri ...

who had left for Britain to help the war effort. Between 1917 and 1918 Teale took up a research fellowship at 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 ...

. After the war Teale returned to East Africa as part of the geological survey until 1936. Thiele/Teale also did some work in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

with

Albert Ernest Kitson Sir Albert Ernest Kitson, (21 March 1868 – 8 March 1937) was a British-Australian geologist, naturalist, and winner of the Lyell Medal in 1927. Early life Kitson was born in North Street, Audenshaw, Cheshire, England, the son of John ...

and later helped Kitson discover the first diamonds in the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

Personal life

He was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1874. He was married to Charlotte Wilhelmina Stalker in 1909. They had two children, Margaret and Ronald. Edmund and Charlotte lived in

Pirbright Pirbright ( ) is a village in Surrey, England. Pirbright is in the borough of Guildford and has a civil parish council covering the traditional boundaries of the area. Pirbright contains one buffered sub-locality, Stanford Common near the nati ...

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 b ...

in their later years. Edmund died in 1971 leaving Charlotte a

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can so ...

. Their son, Ronald Edmund Littlewood Teale, went on to become a missionary with his wife, who was also called, Margaret, in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

for 60 years. Ronald and Margaret have two daughters Esther Ingram and Ruth Clark as well as five grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.

Selected publications

* Leonard Darwin, Tempest Anderson, A. E. Kitson, E. O. Thiele, ’Some New Zealand Volcanoes: Discussion’, ''The Geographical Journal'', Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jul., 1912), pp. 23–25; * A.E. Kitson & E.O.Thiele, ‘The Geography of the Upper Waitaki Basin, New Zealand’, ''Geographical Journal'', vol. 36, 1910, p. 431. * E. O. Teale, 'Outline of the geology of Tanganyika Territory,' Bull. No. 6, revised, Geol. Surv. Tanganyika Territory, I936.

Sources

Brief biography
Australian Forest History Society Newsletter 39, December 2004, p. 5.

British Geological Survey site

This page in the London Gazette talks about the King conferring knighthood on a list of men

This page shows Edmund Oswald Teale as one of the recipients. 1874 births 1971 deaths Academic staff of the University of Adelaide Scientists from Melbourne 20th-century Australian geologists Australian Knights Bachelor People from Doncaster, Victoria Academic staff of the University of Melbourne {{UK-geologist-stub