George Thurland Prior was educated in Oxford at Christ Church Cathedral School and Magdalen College School. He continued his studies at Magdalen College and passed with first class honours in chemistry in 1885, and first class honours in physics in 1886. For a short time he studied chemistry also at the Technical High School in Aachen, Germany. He was awarded the degrees Master of Arts (MA) and Doctor of Science (DSc, 1905) by the University of Oxford. He joined the staff of the British Museum (Natural History) in 1887 and remained there until his retirement in 1927. From 1909 to 1927 he held the position of keeper of the Department of Minerals. Also in 1887 he became a member of the Mineralogical Society, served on its council for many years and as president from 1927 to 1930. He was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1894, and of the Royal Society of London in 1912.
Prior's research dealt successively with three subjects, namely the chemistry of minerals, petrography, and the chemistry of meteorites. He published extensively on all three these topics and became an expert in the analysis of minerals containing niobium, tantalum, titanium, zirconium and the rare earths. A number of his papers dealt with mineral specimens from southern Africa. The first of these was a note on Connelite from Namaqualand (1888). A later one, "Petrographical notes on the dolerites and rhyolites of Natal and Zululand", was published in the Annals of the Natal Museum (1910, Vol. 2(2), pp. 141-158). Another dealt with "Minerals from Swaziland: Niobates and titanites of the rare earths, chemically allied to euxenite and fergusonite..." (Mineralogical Magazine, 1898-1900). One of these minerals, rich in Yttrium oxide, was first found near Mbabane, Swaziland, and was later named priorite in his honour.
From about 1910 Prior published mainly on the analysis of meteorites. He also compiled a Catalogue of meteorites (1923) and A guide to the collection of meteorites... (1926), published by the British Museum. Several of his papers dealt with meteorites from southern Africa and were published in the Mineralogical Magazine (1913, 1916, 1921, 1923, 1926).
