DEBENHAM, FRANK (1883-1965), Antarctic scientist and geographer, was born on 26 December 1883 at Bowral, New South Wales, younger of twins and third child of English-born parents Rev. John Willmott Debenham (d.1898), an Anglican clergyman, and his wife Edith, née Cleveland. Frank had a happy childhood and youth, camping in the bush and attending the little school run by his father. Sent to The King's School, Parramatta (1900-02), he was dux and excelled at Rugby football and cricket. After reading English and philosophy at the University of Sydney (B.A., 1906), he joined the staff of The Armidale School; there he taught himself some science and introduced compulsory classes in that subject. Back at university in 1908, Debenham studied geology under (Sir) Edgeworth David and became Deas Thomson scholar in geology.

In 1910 he and T. G. Taylor joined Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic expedition as geologists ...

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Source:

Australian Dictionary of Biography