Walter Oliver
Walter Reginald Brook Oliver ( born September 7, 1883 in Launceston, Tasmania, † May 16 1957 in Wellington, New Zealand) was a New Zealand botanist and ornithologist. His botanical author abbreviation is " WRBOliv. "
Biography
At the age of 13 years, Walter Oliver emigrated with his parents to Tauranga in New Zealand. Between 1900 and 1914 he worked as a civil servant at the New Zealand Customs Service. This item allows him expeditions to the Kermadecinseln, the Chatham Islands, Stewart Iceland and on the Lord Howe Island to do and collect important geological, botanical and ornithological data. In 1914, he is drawn into the First World War, serving in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in France. In 1919, he undertakes his first botanical expedition to Tahiti. Between 1920 and 1927 he worked as a research assistant in the Dominion Museum, Wellington. Between 1924 and 1927 he studied at the Victoria University of Wellington and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Science. In 1927 he is member of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In 1928, he assumes the office of the Director of the Dominion Museum, he pauses to 1947.
1930 appears his book New Zealand Birds, one of the most important standard works on the New Zealand avifauna. In 1934 he obtained from the University of New Zealand his doctorate degree. In 1939 he was a member of the British Ornithologists ' Union. Between 1943 and 1944 he is President of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. From 1943 to 1944 he is President of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In 1956, he takes a last private expedition to Norfolk Island.