Person

Iredale, Tom (1880 - 1972)

Born
24 March 1880
Stainburn, Cumberland, England
Died
12 April 1972
Harbord, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Conchologist, Zoological collector and Ornithologist

Summary

Tom Iredale, after spending a number of years working at the British Museum with G.M. Mathews on Australian birds, was appointed conchologist to the Australian Museum, Sydney 1924 -1944. He published widely on shells (using shell morphology rather than the morphology of the animals in the shells), birds, ecology and zoogeography. Significant numbers of Iredale's collections, especially from the Great Barrier Reef, are in the Australian Museum. The marine gastropod genus Iredalea was named in his honour.

Details

For a while after his retirement, he was an expert adviser to Sir Edward Hallstrom on ornithological and avicultural books.

Many species in conchology, ichthyology and ornithology were named after him, as well as several genera. He wrote a large number of technical articles, lectured frequently and wrote popular scientific articles. Under various pseudonyms these appeared in Sydney newspapers and The Australian Cage Bird & Pigeon World (1935), in which he mostly signed himself Garrio (Latin for "I chatter")

Chronology

1899 - 1901
Career position - Apprentice pharmacist
1902
Life event - Moved to New Zealand
1902 - 1908
Career position - Clerk, Henry Berry & Co., Christchurch, New Zealand
1908 - 1909
Career position - Visited Kermadec Islands, collecting bird and molluscan specimens and field data
1909
Life event - Returned to England
1909
Career position - Visited Queensland, collecting about 300 species of chitons and other molluscs
1909 - 1910
Career event - Freelance worker, British Museum [working on his collections]
1909 - 1923
Life event - Resident in the United Kingdom
1911 - 1923
Career position - Assistant to Gregory Mathews on his Birds of Australia and Manual of the Birds of Australia (much of the text was written by Iredale, but credited to Mathews)
1924 - 1944
Career position - Conchologist, Australian Museum
1931 - 1972
Award - Fellow, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
1932
Career event - Elected Associate Member (Zoology), Australian National Research Council
1937 - 1938
Career position - President, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
1944
Life event - Retired
1944 - 1972
Career position - Honorary Associate, Australian Museum
1959
Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

Related Awards

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

  • Tom Iredale - Records, 1950, B1561; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • Gregory Macalister Mathews - Records, 1900 - 1949, MS 1465; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Private hands (Iredale, R.)

  • Tom Iredale - Records, 1880 - 1972; Private hands (Iredale, R.). Details

Published resources

Book Sections

  • Kloot, Tess, 'Iredale, Tom (1880-1972), conchologist and ornithologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 435-436, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090431b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

  • Chisholm, A. H.; and Serventy, D. L., 'Tom Iredale', Emu, 73 (2) (1973), 74-8. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Solander as an Ornithologist', Ibis (1913), 127-135. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Lhotzky's Lament', The Australian Zoologist, 3 (1922), 223-226. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'George Forster's Paintings', The Australian Zoologist, 4 (1925), 48-53. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'John Brazier. Conchologist', The Australian Museum Magazine, 4 (1930), 113-114. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'John Brazier 1842-1930', Nautilus, 44 (1931). Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Obituary Notice: John Brazier', Conchology (London), 19 (1931). Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Thomas Skottowe, Naturalist', Emu, 33 (1934), 354-355. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'J. R. and G. Forster, Naturalists', Emu, 37 (1937), 95-99. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'The Last Letters of John MacGillvray', The Australian Zoologist, 9 (1937), 40-63. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'John Gould: the Bird Man.', Emu, 38 (2) (1938), 90-5. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'William Anderson, Ornithologist.', Emu, 38 (1938), 60-62. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'The Work of Gregory Mathews, Ornithologist', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (1940), 31-33. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Jules Verreaux [in Australia]', The Australian Zoologist, 11 (1945), 71-72. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Gregory M. Mathews (1876-1949)', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1948/9 (1948), 16-20. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Bellinghausen in Australia', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (1953), 34-36. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'James Stuart, Ornithologist', The Australian Zoologist, 12 (1955), 127-128. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'John (William) Brazier', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (1956), 105-118. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'History of New South Wales shells, part 1: Cook and his associates', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1954 (1956), 81-3. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Broinowski's Birds and Mammals of Australia', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (1956). Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Charles Hedley's Papers Indexed', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (1956), 118-139. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'History of New South Wales shells, part 2: the settlement years', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1955 (1957), 125-6. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Scientific Societies in Australia. The Sydney University Chemical Society', The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Proceedings, 27 (1960), 216-217. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Charles Hedley', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 88 (1967), 26-31. Details
  • Iredale, T. and Whitley, G. P., 'Blandowski.', The Victorian naturalist, 49 (1932), 90-96. Details
  • Iredale, T.; and McMichael, D. F., 'A reference list of the marine molluscs of New South Wales', Memoirs of the Australian Museum, 11 (1962), 1-109. Details
  • Iredale, T.; and Troughton, E., 'The Actual Identity of Captain Cook's Kangaroo', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 87 (1962), 177-184. Details
  • Iredale, T.; and Whitley, G.P., 'Sir William Dennison as a Conchologist', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (1964), 27-30. Details
  • Iredale, T.; and Whitley, G.P., 'John Roach, the Budgerigar, and the Unfortunate Officer', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 89 (1968), 36-39. Details
  • Iredale, Tom; and Hull, A. F. Bassett, 'Monograph of the Australian Loricates (Phylum Mollusca - Order Loricata), IX: appendix C, biography and bibliography', Australian zoologist, 4 (1927), 339-59. Details
  • Mathews, G.M.; and Iredale, T., 'Captain Thomas Brown, Ornithologist', The Australian Avian Record, 4 (1922), 176-194. Details
  • McMichael, Donald F.; and Whitley, Gilbert P., 'The Published Writings of Tom Iredale with an Index of his Scientific Names', The Australian Zoologist, 12 (1956), 211-250. Details
  • Ponder, W. F.; and Whitley, G. P., 'Tom Iredale (1880 - 1972)', Nautilus, 68 (1972), 60-2. Details
  • Ward, M., 'In Appreciation of Tom Iredale', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 89 (1968), 57-58. Details
  • Whitley, G. P., 'Life and Work of Tom Iredale (1880-1972) [includes lists of writings and proposed new names of species]', Australian Zoologist, 17 (2) (1972), 65-125. Details
  • Whitley, Gilbert P.; and Ponder, Winston F., 'Obituary Tom Iredale (1880 - 1972)', Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia, 2 (4) (1973), 361-4. Details

Resources

See also

  • Beechey, D. L., 'Sydney's Molluscs: from Gentlemen to Malacologists' in The Natural History of Sydney, Lunney, Daniel, Hutchings, Pat A. and Hochuli, Dieter, eds (Mosman, N.S.W.: Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 2010), pp. 107-24. Details
  • Mattingley, Christobel, Seen but Not Heard: Lilian Medland's Birds (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2014), 207 pp. Details
  • Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

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