Tryon, Henry (1856 - 1943)

Summary

Henry Tryon was regarded as one of Australia's foremost entomologists. Early studies in medicine in London gave way to natural history, particularly insects and plants. After a short time in Sweden and New Zealand, Tryon arrived in New Zealand in 1882. He joined the Queensland Museum in 1882, becoming Assistant Curator in 1885. Tyron's relations with the Museum having become fractious after 1887, because of his work with the Department of Agriculture on the development of pleuro pneumonia vaccine, he was appointed Government Entomologist in 1894 and concurrently, in 1901, Vegetable Pathologist with the Department. Significant work he conducted on pest species over the next 30 years included the control of prickly pear by the introduction of Cactoblastis (cochineal insect), buffalo fly and fruit fly. He published over 150 papers including a series on prickly pear with T. H. Johnston. At times he was involved with Queensland and New South Wales government inquiries on mange in stock and rabbit eradication. Tryon made significant collectors of plant and insect specimens throughout Queensland. He is commemorated in the names of several species of plants and fruit-fly, and Tryon Island in the Great Barrier Reef.

Details

Chronology

1882 - 1885

Career position - Clerical and scientific assistant, Queensland Museum

1884 - 1888

Career position - Founding Secretary, Royal Society of Queensland

1884 - 1891

Career position - Member, Royal Society of Queensland

1885 - 1893

Career position - Assistant Curator, Queensland Museum

1887 - 1888

Career position - Member, Queensland board of inquiry into mange-affected stock

1888

Career event - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1888 - 1889

Career position - Member, New South Wales Royal Commission into the destruction of rabbits

1892

Career position - Foundation President, Natural History Society of Queensland

1893

Career event - Retrenched from the Museum

1894 - 1904

Career position - Government Entomologist, Queensland Department of Agriculture

1901 - 1904

Career position - Vegetable Pathologist, Queensland Department of Agriculture

1903 - 1906

Career event - Collected plant specimens on Percy Islands, Queensland

1904 - 1925

Career position - Government Entomologist, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock

1904 - 1925

Career position - Vegetable Pathologist, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock

1906 - 1922

Career position - Foundation Member, Field Naturalists' Club of Queensland

1907

Career position - President, Field Naturalists' Club of Queensland

1920 - 1929

Career position - Member, Royal Society of Queensland

1929 - 1943

Career position - Life member, Royal Society of Queensland

1929 - 1943

Award - Life member, Royal Society of Queensland

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Fryer Library and Department of Special Collections, University of Queensland

• Henry Tryon - Records, 1915, D.1915 Try. F228; Fryer Library and Department of Special Collections, University of Queensland. Details

Queensland Department of Primary Industry, Indooroopilly

• Henry Tryon - Records, 1893 - 1925; Queensland Department of Primary Industry, Indooroopilly. Details

Queensland State Archives

• Henry Tryon - Records, 1887 - 1925; Queensland State Archives. Details

Published resources

Books

• Johnston, T. Harvey and Tryon, Henry, Report on the Prickly Pear Travelling Commission, 1st Nov 1912 - 30th April 1914 (Brisbane: Government Printer, 1914), 131 pp. Details
• Musgrave, A., Bibliography of Australian entomology, 1775-1930: with biographical notes on authors and collectors (Sydney: Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1932), 380 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Logan, G. N., 'Tryon, Henry (1856-1943), scientist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 272-273. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120305b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Holland, C. W., 'The late Henry Tryon', Queensland naturalist, 12 (1945), 117-8. Details
• Ryley, Malcolm and Park, Robert F., 'Stem rust of wheat in colonial Australia and the development of the plant pathology profession', Historical records of Australian science, 35 (2) (2024), 83-97, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR23005. Details
• Ryley, Malcolm J., 'Henry Tryon - the true discoverer of the potato brown rot pathogen, Ralstonia solanacearum', Historical records of Australian science, 35 (2) (2024), 142-50. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR23007. Details
• Ryley, Malcolm J. and Drenth, Andre, 'A matter of where and when - the appearance of Late Blight of potato in Australia', Historical records of Australian science, 35 (2) (2024), 213-22. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR23009. Details
• Ryley, Malcolm J. and Drenth, Andre, ' A prickly business - Edward Shelton, Henry Tryon and the mysterious pineapple disease', Historical records of Australian science, 35 (2) (2024), 130-41. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR23008. Details
• Tryon, H., 'Rowland Illidge', Queensland naturalist, 7 (1929), 13-9. Details
• Tryon, Henry, 'On the role of silica in the wheat-plant, in determining a comparative immunity from the attacks of the rust fungus', 1 (1888), 343-347, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813433. Details
• White, C.T., 'Henry Tryon, First Honorary Secretary, Royal Society of Queensland, and His Place in Queensland Science', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, lvi (8) (1945), 44-80. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2882827. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/316745430. Details
• 'Tryon, Henry (18561220-19431115)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1464849. Details

See also

• Fagg, Murray, 'Tryon, Henry (1856 - 1943)', Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators, Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH), 2010, https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/tryon-henry.html. Details
• Frawley, Jodi, 'Prickly Pear Land: Transnational Networks in Settler Australia', Australian Historical Studies, 38 (130) (2007), 323-38. Details
• George, Alex S., Australian botanist's companion (Kardinya, W.A.: Four Gables Press, 2009), 671 pp. Details
• Marks, Elizabeth N., 'A history of the Queensland Philosophical Society and the Royal Society of Queensland from 1859 to 1911', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 71 (1960), 17-42. http://www.royalsocietyqld.org/wp-content/uploads/documents/Elizabeth_Marks_History.pdf. Details
• Mather, Patricia, A Time for a Museum: a History of the Queensland Museum (Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1986), 365 pp. Details