Chapter 12 The ultimate accolade: election to FRS

Abstract

Exactly one week after Gregory sailed for Melbourne, on 21 February 1901, an election proposal was delivered to the Royal Society for Gregory to be made a Fellow. Gregory and Poulton, with some assistance from Captain Tizard, had seemingly been fighting alone for the Royal Society's position of retaining scientific research as the principal aim of the Antarctic Expedition; and Gregory had not even been a Fellow! However, it was not on these grounds that the candidate's qualifications for election were based; indeed they were not even mentioned and to underline the fact that Gregory's published work alone was the justification, neither Tizard nor Poulton were included in the 12 supporting Fellows who were, in order and as they signed themselves: T. G. Bonney, John W. Judd, W. T. Blanford, C. A. McMahon [1830–1904], Arch. Geikie, William R. Gowers [1845–1915], Henry Woodward, Lazarus Fletcher [1854–1921], E. Ray Lankester, E. T. Newton [1840–1930], Horace B. Woodward and George J. Hinde [1839–1918]. (RS archives, GB 117, Cert. XII, 125). It seems too much of a coincidence that the particular timing of this proposal was not intended by the proposers to signify the public support of the RS for Gregory's stand and perhaps a desire to have some of the reflected glory that the proposers felt would come to the Society from his proposed Antarctic explorations. Two of the proposers, Geikie and Judd, would have had copies of Gregory's application for the Melbourne Chair, with its list of his publications, only 16 months earlier; or Gregory might have been asked for an up-to-date listing as the list included papers published in 1900. The citation stated: ‘Professor of Geology in the University of Melbourne. Explorer of Mount Kenya and author of ‘The Great Rift Valley’. Has contributed a large number of papers to scientific …