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Reg Sprigg
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Reg Sprigg
Reginald Claude Sprigg (1 March 1919 – 2 December 1994) was an Australian geologist and conservationist. At 17, sponsored by Walter Howchin, he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia. During 1946, in the Ediacara Hills, South Australia he discovered the Ediacara biota, an assemblage of some of the most ancient animal fossils known. He was involved with oceanographic research and petroleum exploration by various companies that he initiated. In 1968, he acquired a derelict pastoral lease, Arkaroola, and transformed it into a wildlife sanctuary and wilderness reserve.
Reginald Claude Sprigg was born 1 March 1919 on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, where his family were living in the small town of Stansbury. His parents were Claude Augustus Sprigg and Pearl Alice Irene (née Germein), who married on 17 September 1913 in Stansbury.[non-primary source needed] Reg was their third and youngest child, a brother to D'Arcy Kingsley and Constance Vera.[better source needed]
His father's family were pastoralists, whilst the Germein family were mariners. The Sprigg family relocated to the Yorke Peninsula after being "forced off their pastoral lease at Oulnina because of drought". The Germein family were ship chandlers in Mutton Cove, Devonport, Plymouth, England: three brothers came to Australia. One, Ben Germein is remembered as a hero of the Admella rescue mission.[citation needed]
Before he was five years old, the family relocated to the Adelaide suburb of Goodwood, and Reg started collecting shells and fossils from local beaches. This boyhood hobby developed into a serious interest in geology, which brought him into contact with the geoscientists at the University of Adelaide, to whom he took collected samples for identification.
In addition to pursuing his studies in geology, Reg developed drawing skills, which gained him credit in the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts merit lists for 1934 and 1935.
He matriculated from the Adelaide Technical High School in 1938.
At the University of Adelaide, he was a pupil of Douglas Mawson, who said that Sprigg was "his best-ever student". Sprigg completed the requirements for his Bachelor of Science and then graduated Master of Science in 1942, receiving the science faculty's highest award, the Tate Medal. His PhD thesis was rejected for being "too messy", lacking originality, and for his refusal to tidy it up.
In 1940 he enlisted in the Royal Australian Engineers, and worked with munitions from 1941 to 1942.[citation needed] He transferred to the soils division of the CSIRO until 1943, when he joined the South Australian Geological Survey, which sent him to reopen the Radium Hill uranium field in 1944, and to map the Mount Painter uranium field, new sources being required for the Manhattan Project.[citation needed]
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Reg Sprigg
Reginald Claude Sprigg (1 March 1919 – 2 December 1994) was an Australian geologist and conservationist. At 17, sponsored by Walter Howchin, he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia. During 1946, in the Ediacara Hills, South Australia he discovered the Ediacara biota, an assemblage of some of the most ancient animal fossils known. He was involved with oceanographic research and petroleum exploration by various companies that he initiated. In 1968, he acquired a derelict pastoral lease, Arkaroola, and transformed it into a wildlife sanctuary and wilderness reserve.
Reginald Claude Sprigg was born 1 March 1919 on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, where his family were living in the small town of Stansbury. His parents were Claude Augustus Sprigg and Pearl Alice Irene (née Germein), who married on 17 September 1913 in Stansbury.[non-primary source needed] Reg was their third and youngest child, a brother to D'Arcy Kingsley and Constance Vera.[better source needed]
His father's family were pastoralists, whilst the Germein family were mariners. The Sprigg family relocated to the Yorke Peninsula after being "forced off their pastoral lease at Oulnina because of drought". The Germein family were ship chandlers in Mutton Cove, Devonport, Plymouth, England: three brothers came to Australia. One, Ben Germein is remembered as a hero of the Admella rescue mission.[citation needed]
Before he was five years old, the family relocated to the Adelaide suburb of Goodwood, and Reg started collecting shells and fossils from local beaches. This boyhood hobby developed into a serious interest in geology, which brought him into contact with the geoscientists at the University of Adelaide, to whom he took collected samples for identification.
In addition to pursuing his studies in geology, Reg developed drawing skills, which gained him credit in the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts merit lists for 1934 and 1935.
He matriculated from the Adelaide Technical High School in 1938.
At the University of Adelaide, he was a pupil of Douglas Mawson, who said that Sprigg was "his best-ever student". Sprigg completed the requirements for his Bachelor of Science and then graduated Master of Science in 1942, receiving the science faculty's highest award, the Tate Medal. His PhD thesis was rejected for being "too messy", lacking originality, and for his refusal to tidy it up.
In 1940 he enlisted in the Royal Australian Engineers, and worked with munitions from 1941 to 1942.[citation needed] He transferred to the soils division of the CSIRO until 1943, when he joined the South Australian Geological Survey, which sent him to reopen the Radium Hill uranium field in 1944, and to map the Mount Painter uranium field, new sources being required for the Manhattan Project.[citation needed]