Graham Turbott


Evan Graham Turbott was a New Zealand ornithologist, zoologist, and museum administrator. He served as director of the Auckland Institute and Museum from 1964 to 1979.

Early life and family

Born at Stanley Bay on Auckland's North Shore, Turbott was the eldest of the three sons of Thomas Turbott, headmaster of Grey Lynn School, and his wife Evangeline Alice Turbott. His brothers included the diplomat and businessman Ian Turbott. He was educated at Stanley Bay School, Vauxhall School, and was a foundation pupil of Takapuna Grammar School. Turbott studied at Auckland Teachers' Training College and Auckland University College. He graduated from the latter institution with a Master of Science in zoology in 1938. His thesis was entitled Some observations on the distribution and anatomy of Leiopelma hochstetteri Fitzinger.

Career

In 1937, Turbott was appointed as assistant zoologist at Auckland War Memorial Museum. On 7 September 1940, Turbott married the museum's ethnologist Olwyn Mary Rutherford at All Saints' Church, Howick. In 1943 Turbott volunteered to join the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and was posted to the meteorological section. In 1944 he spent a year on coast-watching duties in the subantarctic Auckland Islands as part of the Cape Expedition, which also included Charles Fleming and Robert Falla, but he also found time to pursue his interest in natural history. He later wrote about the experience in the book Year Away: Wartime coast watching on the Auckland Islands, 1944, published in 2002.
Turbott returned and continued at Auckland Museum. In 1948, Turbott described Archey's frog, naming the species after museum director Gilbert Archey. In 1957, Turbott left to become the assistant director of Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. He returned in 1964 to take up the post of director of the Auckland Institute and Museum, succeeding Archey. He remained there until he retired in August 1979, when he was named as the museum's director emeritus.
Turbott wrote or co-authored several ornithological works, including New Zealand bird life, Buller's birds of New Zealand, A field guide to the birds of New Zealand and outlying Islands, The new guide to the birds of New Zealand and outlying islands, Collins guide to the birds of New Zealand and outlying islands, Birds of New Zealand, and Checklist of the birds of New Zealand and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica.
A founding member of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand, Turbott served as its president from 1949 to 1952, North Island vice president from 1947 to 1949 and 1957 to 1958, and a councillor between 1953 and 1955.
Turbott died on 12 December 2014.

Honours and awards

In the 1978 New Year Honours, Turbott was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services, in recognition of his role as director of the Auckland Institute and Museum. He was bestowed with the Robert Falla Memorial Award by the Ornithological Society of New Zealand in 1988, and made a fellow of the same organisation in 1997. In 2014, Turbott was the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from Auckland Museum.

Honorific eponynyms

There are 15 species, mostly invertebrates from New Zealand offshore islands, that were collected by Turbott have been named in his honour:
  • Allodiscus turbotti
  • Anagotus turbotti
  • Apatochernes turbotti
  • Aucklandobius turbotti
  • Cambridgea turbotti
  • Cermatulus nasalis turbotti
  • Dicyrtomina turbotti
  • Exeiratus turbotti
  • Mimopeus turbotti
  • Paralaoma turbotti
  • Pholcomma turbotti
  • Proterodesma turbotti
  • Pseudopisalia turbotti
  • Subantarctia turbotti
  • Xenosciomyza turbotti
Additionally, the genus Turbottoplectron, which has since been synonymised with Pachyrhamma, was named after Turbott.
Lake Turbott, on Adams Island in the Auckland Islands, was also named after Turbott.

Selected bibliography