Georgina King

Georgina King (1845-1932), was an Australian geologist and anthropologist. Early life Georgina King was born on 6 June 1845 in Fremantle, Western Australia, to George King, a Church of England clergyman from Ireland, and his wife Jane Mathewson. She is their second daughter, and her brother Kelso King would also bring acclaim to the family. In 1849, her family moved to Sydney. King's father, a fellow of St Paul's College, oversaw her education and encouraged her to read widely including books on evolution and natural history. It is in Sydney where she developed her interest in fossils, first introduced to her by a clergyman and amateur geologist named William Branwhite Clarkson. Later on, her family doctor, George Bennett, a keen naturalist, recommended texts on geology for her to read. So, like many of the young women during the 19th century, she was educated from home. Discouraged by her father and Bennett from marrying, King looked after a nephew and niece at Springwood from the 1870s until 1881, and then travelled to Britain and Europe. She experienced a significant amount of hardship in her years working geology. Often like she was being taken advantage of or not being taken seriously enough in an industry dominated by males. Eventually she wrote two autobiographies before her death in 1932. Scientific studies After returning to Australia, King was active in the Women's Literary Society, which was founded in 1889, along with friend Rose Scott. King was an original member of the Women's Club. In 1888, King attended the inaugural meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She met many distinguished scientists through this meeting and later corresponded with R. L. Jack, who had done extensive geological surveys of Queensland and (Sir) Frederick McCoy of Victoria. Recalling the geological history she had been taught in her youth, and inspired by the work of McCoy and others, King proposed a 'Tertiary Period Catastrophism' theory to the wider scientific community. When her paper on this theory was rejected by the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1892, King sent them to be published in newspapers like the Sydney Morning Herald. Similarly she sent her papers to the University of Sydney and other scientists to consider. Her controversial ideas and claims to theories posed by other scientists, led to further ridicule.