Dr Bill Lynch

Dr. Bill Lynch talked about David Reid Tait (1878 to 1960) of Dundee and his work on Christmas Island. Bill was friend of Tait's daughter who is now 95. She had two shoe boxes of material on Tait dated between 1906 and 1911 when he was at Christmas Island. Tait had worked his way through the ranks from gardener to botanist. Born at Downie Muir at Monikie near Dundee, he worked for three years at Castleroy in Broughty Ferry. It was one of the largest estates in Scotland before it was sold off. He became an estate garden apprentice to a number of large gardens including Reres Mount, one of the biggest gardens near Dundee. He went to classes at Dundee Institute now part of Abertay University. His studies included building construction, measurement for map making and forestry. He was seen as having great potential to develop his knowledge of agriculture and botany and was taken on by the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. In 1904 RBGE was building specialist knowledge of tropical plants. He was recommended by famous oceanographer Sir John Murray for a contract as an agri-botanist to go to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. Christmas Island is 52 square miles and had a population of 1250. It had been annexed by Britain in 1888 when phosphates from guano had been found and a mining industry had begun. Phosphates were the building blocks of fertilizers. 400 indentured labourers worked the phosphate. Tait was to consider the best crops to feed them and to look at other commercial possibilities. He was there from 1906 to 1911. He investigated the growing of cotton and rubber but trials were not very successful. He sent quarterly agricultural reports and became a board member of the Christmas Island Phosphate Company. Particular problems on the island were rats and the weather. A riot there by indentured labourers ended his activities there. From 1911 to 1912 he was joint manager for phosphate searches on Henderson Island in the Pacific Ocean. He made detailed maps of Christmas Island, where two parts of the island were named after him, and Henderson Island. He went to Las Vegas in 1913 to develop a fruit farm before he served in WWI. Some of his records were lost during the bombing of WWII.

The speaker followed up on the information he had and visited Christmas Island where he took many photos. It is now part of Western Australia although it is 960 miles to the NW.

Tait was a polymath working also on flora and fauna and fossil hunting.