Charles Chilton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1860-09-27)27 September 1860 Pencombe, Herefordshire, England |
| Died | 25 October 1929(1929-10-25) (aged 69) |
| Education | University of Canterbury, New Zealand;University of New Zealand;University of Edinburgh |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Crustaceans |
| Institutions | Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, University of Canterbury |
| Author abbrev. (zoology) | Chilton |
Charles Chilton (27 September 1860 – 25 October 1929) was a New Zealandzoologist, the firstrector to be appointed inAustralasia,[1] and the first person to be awarded aD.Sc. degree in New Zealand.[2]
Chilton was born on 27 September 1860 at Little Marstone,Pencombe, son of Thomas Chilton,[3] (nearLeominster, Herefordshire, England)[4] but emigrated with his family to New Zealand in 1862. They settled on a farm atEast Eyreton,North Canterbury.[5] He was troubled by his hips from an early age, and had his left legamputated, using anartificial leg and acrutch thereafter.[2]
He enteredCanterbury College in 1875 as an unmatriculated student, and matriculated three years later. In 1881, he gained a Master of Art withfirst class honours, having been taught byFrederick Hutton, who inspired him to take up biology, especially the study ofcrustaceans, which had been little studied in New Zealand up to that time.[4] Chilton's firstscientific publication followed that same year, when he described three new species of crustacean (two crabs and oneisopod) fromLyttelton Harbour andLake Pupuke.[6] He surprised the scientific world later that year by describing four species ofamphipod andisopod fromgroundwaters at the family farm in Eyreton.[7][8] He went on to discover the isopodPhreatoicus typicus in the same location,[9] the first example ever described of the suborderPhreatoicidea,[7] the "earliest derived isopod[s]".[10]
Chilton gained the first BSc degree from theUniversity of New Zealand in 1887,[4] and married Elizabeth Jack, whom he had met at Dunedin Training College, in 1888.[3] In 1893, he gained the first D.Sc. awarded in New Zealand, but in 1895, the family moved toEdinburgh, where Chilton studied medicine in an attempt to improve his career. He specialised inophthalmic surgery, working atThe Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, before travelling to study atHeidelberg, Vienna and London in 1900. In 1901, he returned to New Zealand and in 1903 took on the Chair of Biology at theUniversity of Canterbury. From 1904 to 1911, the Chilton family lived atLlanmaes, a house built byFrancis Petre in central Christchurch.[1]
In 1907 Chilton was selected to be a member of the1907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition. The main aim of the expedition was to extend the magnetic survey of New Zealand by investigating Auckland and Campbell Islands but botanical, biological and zoological surveys were also conducted. The voyage also resulted in rescue of the castaways of the shipwreck theDundonald in the Auckland Islands.[11] Chilton was the editor of the subsequent scientific reports resulting from the expedition.[12]
Chilton was instrumental in establishing the Cass Field Station (formerly Canterbury College Mountain Biological Station), the building of which was completed in 1914.[13]
In 1915, Frank Chilton, the couple's only child, a second-year medical student and a lieutenant in theArgyll and Sutherland Highlanders, was killed in theBattle of Gallipoli.[5]
Charles Chilton became rector of Canterbury University College in 1921, the first time such a post had been granted in Australia or New Zealand.[3] He was a member of the Board of Governors of Canterbury Agricultural College in Lincoln (nowLincoln University), and chairman of the board in 1927.[4] In 1922 he was awarded theMueller Medal by theAustralian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science.[14]
Chilton died on 25 October 1929 of a sudden attack ofpneumonia, before he could collect his life's work into a singlemonograph.[3] He had published 130 papers on crustaceans, mostly amphipods, isopods and decapods, from all around the world, but especially from New Zealand, subterranean and sub-Antarctic waters.[3]
Media related toCharles Chilton (zoologist) at Wikimedia Commons
