Edgeworth David - Later Life

Later Life

In September 1920 David was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Returning to Australia, he took up a long-cherished project, the writing of a definitive work, The Geology of the Commonwealth of Australia. In 1921–22 David helped set up the Australian National Research Council and served as its first President. In 1924 he retired as Professor of Geology at the University of Sydney, the chair passing to his student Leo Cotton, a neighbour in Hornsby, New South Wales. In 1928 he discovered what he believed were Precambrian fossils, creating controversy which remained until his death.

In 1931 he published the Geological Map of the Commonwealth and the accompanying Explanatory Notes, designed to be part of his Geology of the Commonwealth of Australia. He died in 1934 without being able to complete this work and was given a state funeral.