Legge, William Vincent (1841 - 1918)

Summary

William Legge was founder of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union and its first president (1901-1903). He was also a Colonial Member of the British Ornithologists' Union and Honorary Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union. Legge was a keen collector of bird skins which he presented to the Hobart Museum in 1902 and wrote History of the Birds of Ceylon (1880) and Systematic List of Tasmanian Birds (1887). He also assisted in the compilation of the List of Vernacular Names for Australian Birds which was presented at the Sydney session of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science.

Details

Educated in Bath, England, France and Germany, William Legge was later commissioned in the Royal Artillery 1862. He was initially stationed at Dover from 1862-67 and then served with the imperial troops in Melbourne (1867-68) and Ceylon (1869-77). While in Ceylon, as Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, he reorganised the run-down museum at Colombo and made a large collection of birds. Legge returned to the UK and was instructor in gunnery in Portsmouth from 1877-83. Legge became Lieutenant-Colonel and Commandant of the Tasmanian military forces from 1883-90 and 1898-1904. He later retired to "Cullenswood" in Scotland.

His son, Robert William Legge, was born in Trincomalee, Ceylon on 16 December 1874 and died at "Cullenswood", December 1944. Robert was educated the Hutchins School in Hobart and ran pastoral properties in the Riverina. He took over as manager of "Cullenswood" in 1918 after the death of his father (to1944). Like his father, Robert was extremely interested in birds, trees and aboriginal stone implements. He contributed several times to the 'Stray Feathers' column of The Emu and with his wife's help, he acquired a remarkable collection of stone artefacts, which were presented to the Victorian Museum at Launceston.

Chronology

1862 - 1867

Career position - Commissioned in the Royal Artillery and stationed in Dover

1867 - 1877

Career position - Served with the imperial troops in Melbourne (-1868) and Ceylon

1877 - 1883

Career position - Instructor in gunnery at Portsmouth

1880

Career position - History of the Birds of Ceylon published

1883 - 1890

Career position - Lieutenant-Colonel and Commandant of the Tasmanian military forces

1887

Career position - Systematic List of Tasmanian Birds published

1898 - 1904

Career position - Lieutenant-Colonel and Commandant of the Tasmanian military forces

1901

Career position - Founder of the (Royal) Australasian Ornithologists Union

1901 - 1903

Career position - Inaugural President of the Australasian Ornithologists Union

1904

Career position - President, Section D (Biology), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science Congress in Dunedin

1907

Career position - Commemorated by Legge Tor, Ben Lomond Range

Related entries

Published resources

Book Sections

• Dollery, E. M., 'Legge, William Vincent (1841-1918), soldier and scientist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 5: 1851 - 1890 K-Q, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1974), p. 78. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050091b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Legge, W. V., 'Systematic list of Tasmanian birds', Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1886 (1887), 235-45. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q8019740. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/77747986. Details
• 'Legge, W Vincent (1841-1918)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-575990. Details

See also

• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details