DEATH OF DR. R. J. TILLYARD

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21990, 14 January 1937, Page 9

DEATH OF DR. R. J. TILLYARD

A DISTINGUISHED CAREER IN SCIENCE (Received January 13, 9.50 p.m.) SYDNEY, January 13. The death has occurred of Dr. R. J. Tillyard, who was injured in a motor-car accident near Goulburn yesterday. Death was caused by a fracture and dislocation of the neck. The funeral will take place at Canberra. Sir George Julius, chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, in paying a tribute to Dr. Tillyard, declared that the Commonwealth had lost an eminent observer and investigator. Dr. Tillyard, who was Chief Commonwealth Entomologist until 1934, when he retired because of ill-health, is well known in New Zealand for his association with the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, at which he was chief of the biological department from 1920 to 1928 and assistant director in 1927 and 1928 He was born in Norwich, England, in 1881, and he was educated at Dover College and Queens’ College, Cambridge, where he was senior optime in the mathematical tripos in 1903. Leaving Cambridge, he was appointed a mathematical and science master at the Sydney Grammar School, and he remained there until 1914. In 1913 and 1914 he was a research scholar at the University of Sydney, and from 1915 to 1920 he was Linnean Macleay Fellow in Zoology at the university. Fot a short time he was also lecturer in zoology. He went to the Cawthron Institute from Sydney and returned to Australia in 1928, when he was appointed Commonwealth Entomologist. . Among his many academic distinctions were those of M.A., Sc. D. (Cantab.), D. Sc. (Sydney). F.R.S., F.R.S.N.Z., and F.R.E.S., and he was also an honorary fellow of Queens College, Cambridge. He was Crisp Medallist of the Linnean Society of London, a silver medallist of the Royal Society of Arts, and an honorary vicepresident of the National Laboratory of Physical Research, London. His publications include “The Biology of Dragonflies,” "Insects of Australia and New Zealand,” and about 180 original scientific papers on ail orders of insects, published in scientific journals throughout the world. Dr. Tillyard visited New Zealand toward the end of 1935.