Engineers. Tate gave special attention to the Recent and Tertiary mollusca of Australia, and discovered evidence of Permian glaciation of southern Australia at Hallett Cove. He published his valuable Handbook of the Flora of Extratropical South Australia in 1890. In 1893 he was awarded the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales. In 1894 he was a member of the Horn Expedition to Central Australia, writing the palaeontology report in collaboration with J. A. Watt, the general geology report, and the botany report with Joseph Maiden. Late life Tate paid a visit to England at the end of 1896 partly for the good of his health, but early in 1901 it began to fail again and he died on 20 September 1901. He was married twice, survived by his second wife, one son and two daughters from his first marriage, and two sons and a daughter from the second. Recognition The Ralph Tate Society of the University of Adelaide was formed in 1938 to promote original research in natural history by field excursions, similar to the McCoy Society of the University of Melbourne. See also Tietkens expedition of 1889 Notes References A. R. Alderman, 'Tate, Ralph (1840–1901)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 6, MUP, 1976, pp 243–244 External links British geologists Australian geologists British botanists Botanists active in Australia People from Alnwick 1840 births 1901 deaths Fellows of the Linnean Society of London University of Adelaide faculty British emigrants to Australia