Charles Hedley

Charles Hedley
Born	(1862-02-27)27 February 1862 Masham, Yorkshire, England
Died	14 September 1926(1926-09-14) (aged 64)
Parent(s)	Rev. Canon Thomas Hedley and Mary, née Bush
Awards	Royal Society of New South Wales, vice-president of the Malacological Society of London
Scientific career
Fields	Conchology, malacology
Institutions	Royal Society of Queensland (secretary)
Signature

Charles Hedley (27 February 1862 – 14 September 1926) was a

Hedley was born in the vicarage at Masham, Yorkshire, England, the son of the Rev. Canon Thomas Hedley and his wife Mary, née Bush. On account of delicate health Hedley had only two years at Eastbourne College, but his education was continued by his father, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was mainly educated in the south of France; from boyhood he collected mollusc shells, and was greatly influenced by a French work on molluscan anatomy. In France he met George French Angas who gave him a letter of introduction to Dr. George Bennett of Sydney.^[1][2][3]

Exploring in Oceania

In 1881 Hedley went to

Hedley was a keen explorer and visited most of the coast of eastern Australia, and the Gulf of Carpentaria, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and the Ellice Group. In later life he visited Canada and Alaska (1922), and Africa (1925). His chief interest was in the study of the Great Barrier Reef. He had become assistant curator of the Australian museum in 1908 and in 1920 he succeeded Robert Etheridge, Junior as principal keeper of collections. During this time he worked with Joyce Allan, from whom he obtained illustrations for his scientific papers.^[5] He resigned in 1925 to become scientific director of the Great Barrier Reef Investigation Committee. Between April and August 1926 he was supervising the sinking of a bore on Michaelmas Reef near Cairns, and he returned to Sydney in August intending to visit Japan in connexion with the third Pan-Pacific Science Congress. Not being well he decided to abandon the journey, and though it was hoped that a rest would restore his health, he died suddenly on 14 September 1926. He married and left a widow and an adopted daughter.^[1]

Awards and achievements

Hedley was on the council of the Linnean Society of New South Wales from 1897 to 1924 and was president from 1909 to 1911; he was on the council for 16 years of the Royal Society of New South Wales and was president in 1914; he was a vice-president of the Malacological Society of London from 1923. He was awarded the David Syme prize in 1916, and in 1925 received the Clarke Medal from the Royal Society of New South Wales. A man of invariable courtesy and kindliness, held in the highest regard by contemporary scientists, his knowledge was always at the disposal of younger naturalists and visiting scientists. His work, and especially in regard to the zoo-geographical history of the Pacific Ocean, gave him a high place among Australian zoologists. Hedley was the only man on the management committee of The Women's Co-operative Silk Growing and Industrial Association of New South Wales Limited, set up in 1893 with the aim of establishing a silk growing industry in New South Wales.^[6] A list of 156 published research papers written by Hedley, and 15 in association with others, was printed in 1924.^[1]

Bibliography

• Hedley C. 1892. Art. XVIII.—An Enumeration of the Janellidae. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 25, pages 156–162.
• 1896-1900 The atoll of Funafuti, Ellice group: its zoology, botany, ethnology, and general structure based on collections made by Mr. Charles Hedley, of the Australian museum, Sydney, N.S.W. Sydney. - Parts written by Charles Hedley include:
  • Hedley C. 1896. Part I. - I. General account of the atoll of Funafuti. 1-72.
  • Hedley C. 1897. Part IV. - XI. The Ethnology of Funafuti" and "The Mollusca of Funafuti. 227-306.
  • Hedley C. 1899. Part VII. - XVII. The Mollusca of Funafuti Part I. 395-488.
  • Hedley C. 1899. Part VIII. - XVIII. The Mollusca of Funafuti Part II. 489-511.
  • Hedley C. 1899. Part IX. - XVII. The Mollusca of Funafuti (Supplement). 547-570.
• Hedley C. 1905. Art. XVI.—Results of Dredging on the Continental Shelf of New Zealand. Webster, W. H., Volume 38, 68-76.
• Hedley C. 1911. Part I. Mollusca. Pages 1-8, plate 1. In: Murray J (ed.) 1911. Vol. II. Biology.
  E.H. Shackleton
  , c.v.o. Reports on the scientific investigations. London.
• Hedley C. (1915), Studies on Australian Mollusca. Part XII; Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales v. 39
• Hedley C. 1916. Part V. Report on Mollusca. From Elevated Marine Beds, "Raised Beaches," of McMurdo Sound. pages 85-88. In: Benson W. L. et al. 1916. Geology. Vol. II. British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–9, under the command of Sir E.H. Shackleton, c.v.o. Reports on the scientific investigations. London.
• Charles Hedley, A revision of the Australian Turridae; Records of the Australian Museum 13 (1922)

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References

This article incorporates public domain text from reference^[1]