R. J. Tillyard

Robin J. Tillyard (1881-1937) was born 31 January, 1881 in Norwich, England.  He took a B.A. from Cambridge University in 1903 and in 1904 traveled to Australia where he served as Mathematics and Science Master at Sydney Grammar School.  A lifelong interest in natural history had become a serious infatuation with dragonflies.  He began publishing on them in 1905, and in 1913 took up a Research Scholarship at the University of Sydney.  He earned a B.S. by research in 1914 and a Doctorate in Science in 1917.  In that year he published The Biology of Dragonflies, Cambridge University Press, which remains today the definitive work on the biology of the group.  From 1915 to 1920 he was Macleay Fellow in Zoology to the Linnean Socirty of New South Wales.  In 1920 he was appointed first Chief of the Biological Department of the Cawthron Institute in Nelson, New Zealand.  While at Cawthron he wrote the The Insects of Australia and New Zealand (1926, Angus & Robertson, Ltd., Sydney), the bible of Australian entomology for some fifty years.  He published widely and authoritatively during these years on Odonata, Plecoptera, Neuroptera, and other orders, and on fossil insects, the wing venation of insects, and the phylogeny of insects.  When the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization formed a Division of Economic Entomology in 1928, Tillyard, the most influential and internationally-known Australasian entomologist, was named its first chief.  He died in 1937 in an automobile accident in Australia at the age of 56.

Tillyard was one of the two most influential workers on the fossils of the Elmo Permian deposits (the other being Frank M. Carpenter).  Dunbar (1924) records: "Interest in...[the Elmo fossils]...was reawakened by a visit made to Yale by Dr. R. J. Tillyard, distinguished paleontologist and Director of the Cawthron Institute of New Zealand.  His own studies upon late Permian and Triassic insects of Australia had inspired him with the belief that the key to the true classification of insects would be found in these early fossils, and, when, during an extended tour in 1920, he was shown a small collection of the Kansas insects which Sellards had generously presented to the Peabody Museum at Yale, his delight was unbounded.  Stimulated by his enthusiasm, Professor Schuchert, then Curator of Geological Collections, was led to undertake a search for more of these rare fossils." 

Thus we see that the renewed interest in the Elmo site and its treasures after some 20 years of neglect since Sellards' original discovery, was largely due to Tillyard's encouragement and conviction as to the worth of the fossils.  E. N. Marks (Chapter 8, "Biographical History", The Insects of Australia, 2nd Edition, Cornell University Press, 1991, a source for much of the biographical info on this page) said that "Tillyard had a mercurial personality with an indomitable spirit; he was a convincing and dramatic lecturer, and wherever he travelled he took an infectious enthusiasm."

In April of 1928 Tillyard traveled to the USA via New Zealand, to attend the International Entomological Congress in Ithaca, New York.  While on this trip he visited the Elmo site twice, on May 28 and August 27 (likely before and after the congress).  D.A. Wilbur, Sr. (see bibliography) published a xerox report on the Elmo fossils that included photos of Tillyard at Elmo together with Kansas State College entomologists George A. Dean (Professor and Head of the Department from 1912-1943), R. C. Smith, and others.  Unfortunately, the xeroxed photos were not of good enough quality for reproduction here. 

For all of Tillyard's contributions to science, he was, like many researchers, not an administrator, and his time at the helm of the CSIR Division of Entomology one of controversy and problems.   An excellent book, A Rich and Diverse Fauna: The history of the Australian National Insect Collection 1926-1991, by Murray S. Upton (1997, CSIRO Publishing, Canberra), delves into this period in considerable detail.  

The group photo of CSIR Division of Entomology staff was taken in 1930 and is used courtesy of the CSIRO.  Dr. Tillyard is seated third from the right in the front row.

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