| Authorised form of name | Tillyard; Robin John (1881 - 1937); entomologist and geologist |
| Dates | 1881 - 1937 |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Place of birth | Norwich, Norfolk, England |
| Date of birth | 31 January 1881 |
| Place of death | Goulburn District Hospital, Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia |
| Date of death | 13/01/1937 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial: Anglican Church of St John the Baptist, Canberra, Australia. |
| Occupation | entomologist and geologist |
| Research field | Insect taxonomy |
| Geology |
| Entomology |
| Activity | Education:
Dover College, Kent, and Queen's College, Cambridge; BA (1903), MA (1907), ScD (Camb); DSc (Sydney) (1914)
Career:
Taught mathematics and science at Sydney Grammar School (1904-13); Biologist to the Cawthron Institute of Scientific Research, Nelson, New Zealand; Mathematical and Science Master, Sydney Grammar School, 1904-1913; Government Research Scholar in Zoology, University of Sydney, 1913-1914; Linnean Macleay Fellow in Zoology, University of Sydney, (1915-1917), (1918-1920); Lecturer and Senior Demonstrator in Zoology, University of Sydney (1917-1918); Vice President of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research (1926); chief Commonwealth entomologist under the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (1928-1934); retired (1934); killed in a car accident which took place near Goulburn, on the road between Canberra and Sydney.
Memberships:
FRSNZ (1924); Hon RSNZ (1935)
Awards/Medals:
Crisp Prize and Medal of the Linnean Society 1917
Clarke Medal 1931
Muller Medal 1935 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 07/05/1925 |
| Age at election | 44 |
| Proposer | David Sharp |
| Arthur Dendy |
| Robert Cyril Layton Perkins |
| Ernest William MacBride |
| William Blaxland Benham |
| George Henry Falkiner Nuttall |
| Leonard Cockayne |
| Edward B Poulton |
| William Abbott Herdman |
| Robert Newstead |
| Arthur Everett Shipley |
| Relationships | Parents: John Joseph Tillyard, solicitor, and Mary Ann Frances, née Wilson.
Spouse: Pattie Craske (23 June 1909). |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 50550
RCN 50548
RCN 50551
RCN 50549
RCN 14047 |
| OtherInfo | Made important contributions to insect palaentology.
Established insect taxonomy within the division.
Published authoritatively on Odonata, Plecoptera, Neuroptera; fossil insects; the wing venation of insects; and the phylogeny of insects.
Interested in psychical research and worked with Harry Price at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research. He was involved in a controversy in the Nature journal, in which he wrote an article in support of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book 'The History of Spiritualism'. He received heavy criticism from Alan Archibald Campbell Swinton (FRS 1915) who identified fraud in mediumship and Conan Doyle's unscientific treatment of the subject. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; K. R. Norris and D. F. Waterhouse, 2006, 'Robin John Tillyard (1881–1937)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, [URL: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/tillyard-robin-john-8817; last accessed: 30/10/2024].
Obituaries:
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 1936-1938 vol 2 pp 339-345, plate, by A D Imms
References:
Robin J H Clark and Michael J Kelly, 'New Zealand, New Zealanders and the Royal Society' in NR 1994 vol 48 pp 263-281 |
| Code | NA7952 |
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| NLB/68/514 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Dr [Robin John] Tillyard, FRS | 23 July 1925 |
| NLB/69/182 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Dr. [Robin John] Tillyard, FRS | 23 January 1926 |
| NLB/68/795 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Dr [Robin John] Tillyard, FRS | 3 November 1925 |
| EC/1925/14 | Tillyard, Robin John: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| NLB/67/710 | Copy letter from unknown correspondent; to unknown correspondent | 19 February 1925 |
| RR/47/13 | Referee's report by William Dickson Lang, on a paper 'Fossils of the late pre-cambrian (newer proterogoic) Adelaide series, South Australia' by Tannatt William Edgeworth David and Robin John Tillyard | 22 June 1932 |
| RR/47/12 | Referee's report by William Thomas Calman, on a paper 'Fossils of the late pre-cambrian (newer proterogoic) Adelaide series, South Australia' by Tannatt William Edgeworth David and Robin John Tillyard | 18 May 1932 |
| ACS/1/3/1/3 | Draft copy of letter from Alan Archibald Campbell Swinton, 40 Chester Square, London, S. W. 1., to The Editor, Nature | 11 September 1926 |
| ACS/1/3/1/1 | Letter from [Robin John] Tillyard, to The Editor, Nature [copy of published letter in Nature No. 2961, Vol. 118] | 31 July 1926 |
| ACS/1/3/1/2 | Letter from [Alan Archibald] Campbell Swinton, 40 Chester Square, London, S. W. 1, to the Editor, Nature [copy of published letter in Nature No. 2965, Vol. 118] | 28 August 1926 |