I took an active part in student affairs at the university and was a member of various students' committees: Union, Science Students, Medical Students and Sports Association. I gained a University ‘Blue’ for hockey in 1936, and was captain of the Adelaide University hockey team in 1937 and 1938. As I relate below, in 1936 I became associated with Professor Frederic Wood Jones, FRS, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Melbourne. In 1935, he had established the McCoy Society for Field Investigation and Research (named after Professor Sir Frederick McCoy, the first Professor of Natural Science at Melbourne University), which arranged for staff and students to carry out biological surveys of interesting places in Victoria during vacations (Ashton, 2001). Stimulated by this, I persuaded Cecil Madigan (Senior Lecturer in Geology) to establish a ‘Tate’ Society (named after Ralph Tate, an early South Australian naturalist) and

Front row: J. E. Kelly, N. C. Hargrave, A. W. Cocks, F. J. Fenner (captain), R. Motteram, W. M. Rolland, M. C. Newland.

Rear row: J. T. Hutton, G. M. Turnbull, M. C. Knight, B. L. G. Johns, J. McPhie.

participated in its first trip, to caves at Swan Reach, in the lower Murray River, in December 1937. Others in the party included Pat Mawson (daughter of Sir Douglas), Roy Sprigg (hon. DSc, ANU, 1980) and Leigh Parkin (later Director of the South Australian Geological Survey). Although another excursion was arranged, to Jankalilla Beach, in December 1938, the Tate Society was an early war casualty.