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{{Short description|English geologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=
{{Use British English|date=September 2012}}
{{Infobox
|honorific_prefix = Sir
| name = Raymond Edward Priestley▼
|name
|honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|MC|size=100%}}
| caption = ▼
|image
|office1 = Vice-Chancellor, [[University of Birmingham]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1974|6|24|1886|7|20}}▼
|term1 = {{start and end dates|1938|10|03|1952|07|30|df=y}}
|predecessor1 = [[Charles Grant Robertson|Sir Charles Robertson]]
|successor1 = [[Humphrey Francis Humphreys|Humphrey Humphreys]]
|office2 = Vice-Chancellor, [[University of Melbourne]]
|term2 = {{start and end dates|1935|02|18|1938|06|30|df=y}}
|predecessor2 = [[James Barrett (academic)|Sir James Barrett]]
|successor2 = Sir John Medley
| occupation = Geologist, Antarctic explorer▼
|birth_date
|birth_place = [[Tewkesbury]], England
|death_place = [[Cheltenham]], England
| serviceyears = 1914-19▼
|
|blank1
|data1 = {{ubli|[[Knight Bachelor]] (1949)|[[Royal Geographical Society's Patron's Medal]] (1959)}}
| battles = [[First World War]]▼
|branch_label = Branch
|branch = {{army|United Kingdom|size=20px}}
|serviceyears_label = Service years
|rank = [[Major (United Kingdom)|Major]]
|unit_label = Corps
|unit = {{ubl|[[Royal Engineers]]|[[Royal Corps of Signals]]}}
|battles_label = Conflict
|mawards = [[Military Cross]] (1919)
}}
'''Sir Raymond Edward Priestley''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|MC}} (20 July 1886
==Biography==
Raymond Priestley was born in [[Tewkesbury]],<ref name=dorset>[http://www.thisisdorset.co.uk/Museum-s-artefacts-suffering-cold/story-11323347-detail/story.html Museum's artefacts suffering from cold.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401063312/http://www.thisisdorset.co.uk/Museum-s-artefacts-suffering-cold/story-11323347-detail/story.html |date=1 April 2012 }} thisisdorset.co.uk 11 November 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2011.</ref> [[Gloucestershire]], in 1886, the second son and second of eight children of Joseph Edward Priestley, headmaster of [[Tewkesbury grammar school]], and his wife, Henrietta Rice. He was educated at his father's school and taught there for a year before reading [[geology]] at [[University College, Bristol]] (1905–07).
==Antarctic expeditions==
Priestley had completed his second year of studies when he enlisted as a [[geologist]] for [[Ernest Shackleton|Shackleton]]'s [[Nimrod Expedition|''Nimrod'' Expedition]] (1907–09) to [[Antarctica]]. There he worked closely with renowned geologists [[Edgeworth David|(Sir) Edgeworth David]] and [[Douglas Mawson]], also members of the expedition. Priestley collected [[mineral]] and [[lichen]] samples from the region including islands in the [[Ross Sea]], the North face of the [[Mount Erebus]] [[volcano]], and mountains near the [[Ferrar Glacier]]. He was part of the advance team that laid the food and fuel depots for Shackleton's nearly successful attempt to be the first to reach the [[South Pole]] in 1909. In a November 1908 expedition, due to a lack of space in a tent, Priestley spent three days of a blizzard sleeping outside in his sleeping bag. As the blizzard raged, he slowly slipped down the glacier and nearly fell off its end to his death. On his return from the expedition, he spent four months in England before returning to [[Sydney]], [[Australia]], to work with Edgeworth David on the geological report, eventually published in 1914.
Priestley returned to the Antarctic as a member of [[Robert Falcon Scott]]'s ill-fated [[Terra Nova Expedition|''Terra Nova'' Expedition]] (
==First World War==
Priestley served in the [[British Army]] during [[World War I]], receiving a commission as a temporary [[second lieutenant]] in the [[Royal Engineers]] (London Wireless Signal Company) on 5 September 1914.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=28892 |date=4 September 1914 |page=7008 |supp=|nolink=y}}</ref> He was seconded on 9 December 1914
{{blockquote|Lt. (T/Capt.) Raymond Edward Priestley, 46th (N. Mid.) Div. Coy., R.E., T.F.
Near Bellenglise on 2nd, 3rd and 4th October, 1918, he was in charge of the executive handling of the signal communications and was mainly instrumental in keeping touch with units during the attack on Ramicourt and Montbrehain. His efficiency and enthusiasm were most marked. He showed utter disregard of danger during his duty on the lines over the whole of the shelled area.}}
==Post-war career==
After the war, Priestley was promoted to acting [[Major (rank)|major]] on 24 January 1919,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=31424|date=27 June 1919 |page=8189 |supp=y|nolink=y}}</ref> and was seconded to the War Office that year to write the history of the signal service. He also wrote "Breaking the Hindenburg Line", an account of 46 (North Midland) Division's spectacular attack during the [[Battle of St Quentin Canal]]. During April–May 1919, he was a staff officer to the Signal Officer-in-Chief, with the temporary rank of major.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=31565|date=23 September 1919 |page=11859 |supp=y|nolink=y}}</ref> He relinquished his temporary commission on 17 November 1920, reverting to the permanent rank of lieutenant in the Territorial Force.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=32168|date=17 December 1920|page=12477 |supp=y|nolink=y}}</ref> From 19 February 1921, he again held the temporary rank of major in the reserves, in the 3rd London, [[Royal Corps of Signals]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=32233|date=18 February 1921|page=1443 |supp=y|nolink=y}}</ref> On 6 July 1921, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Cambridge University Contingent (Senior Division), Officers Training Corps.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=32381|date=5 July 1921|page=5452 |supp=y|nolink=y}}</ref> He was promoted to captain on 21 June 1922 and resigned his commission on 30 June 1926, retaining the rank of major.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=32721|date=20 June 1922|page=4648 |supp=|nolink=y}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33177|date=29 June 1926|page=4236 |supp=|nolink=y}}</ref>
After World War I, he was a [[Major]], commanding the 46th (North Midland) Divisional Signal Company R.E. from 1917-19. He was seconded to the War Office in 1919 to write the history of the signal service. His research and thesis on [[glaciers in the Antarctic]] earned him a BA (Research) at Cambridge in 1920. The same year, he co-founded, with fellow Terra Nova expedition member [[Frank Debenham]], the [[Scott Polar Research Institute]] in Cambridge. In 1922, Priestley was elected fellow of Clare College. In 1924 he joined the university's administrative staff, becoming concurrently assistant registrar, secretary to the board of research studies and secretary-general of the faculties. From the 1930s until his retirement, he held a series of academic and government administrative posts in Australia and [[England]]. He was Vice-Chancellor of the [[University of Melbourne]] from 1935 until resigning in 1938 on a matter of principle after one of several confrontations with the Chancellor. He returned to Britain to be Vice-Chancellor of the [[University of Birmingham]] (1938–52).He was knighted in 1949.▼
▲
After retirement in 1952, he served as Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service from
==Personal==
He married Phyllis Mary Boyd (d.1961) in April 1915. He was the brother-in-law of fellow [[Terra Nova expedition|''Terra Nova'' Expedition]] members [[C. S. Wright]] and [[Thomas Griffith Taylor]].
He died, aged 87, on 24 June 1974 in [[Cheltenham]], [[Gloucestershire]], survived by his two daughters.
Items from Priestley are in the collection of [[Tewkesbury Borough Museum]].<ref name=dorset/> Papers relating to his period as Vice-Chancellor of University of Melbourne and slides taken during the Terra Nova expedition are held by the University of Melbourne Archives<ref>[https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/59883 ''Priestley, Raymond E.'' (1886-1974).] University of Melbourne Archives. Retrieved 20/12/2023</ref>
==References==
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==Further reading==
* Hooper, Meredith (2010). ''The Longest Winter: Scott's Other Heroes''. London: John Murray. {{ISBN|9780719595806}}
* Bullock, Mike (2017). ''Priestley's Progress: The Life of Sir Raymond Priestley, Antarctic Explorer, Scientist, Soldier, Academician''. McFarland & Co Inc, {{ISBN|978-0786478057}}
==External links==
* {{BHL author}}
* {{OL author}}
* {{Internet Archive author}}
{{Polar exploration}}
{{Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Gloucestershire]]
[[Category:20th-century explorers]]
[[Category:20th-century British geologists]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:People from Tewkesbury]]
[[Category:English polar explorers]]
[[Category:Explorers of Antarctica]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:Presidents of the British Science Association]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Military Cross]]
[[Category:Terra Nova expedition]]
[[Category:Vice-Chancellors of the University of Birmingham]]
[[Category:Vice-Chancellors of the University of Melbourne]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers officers]]
[[Category:Royal Corps of Signals officers]]
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