WHITLEY, GILBERT PERCY (1903-1975), ichthyologist and author, was born on 9 June
1903 at Swaythling, near Southampton, England, eldest of three children of Percy
Nathan Whitley, drapery buyer, and his wife Clara Minnie, née Moass. Gilbert was
educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton, and at Osborne House school,
Romsey, Hampshire. With his parents and two sisters, he migrated to Sydney in
1921. On 18 April 1922 he joined the staff of the Australian Museum and worked
under Allan McCulloch. He studied zoology at Sydney Technical College (1922) and
the University of Sydney (1924). Following McCulloch's death, on 2 October 1925
Whitley was appointed ichthyologist (later curator of fishes).
View the full record at
Australian Dictionary of Biography
Gilbert Percy Whitley was Curator of Ichthyology at the Australian Museum from 1922 to 65, but he also had a passion for entomology. The fish of New Zealand, New Guinea and the South Pacific were of particular interest to him as were the insects of Tasmania, Eastern Australia and Lord Howe Island which he collected widely. Throughout his illustrious career, Whitley published over 500 works and assisted A. Musgrave in compiling the Bibliography of Australian Entomology 1775-1930 (1932). He also served on the councils of the Royal Australian Historical Society and the Anthropological Society of New South Wales and on the Great Barrier Reef Committee. Whitley was President of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (on three separate occasions) and the Linnean Society of New South Wales. He retired in September 1964, but continued his research and field trips.
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1921
Life event - Migrated to Australia (Sydney) with his family
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1922 - 1925
Career position - Staff member of the Australian Museum in Sydney
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1925 - 1964
Career position - Ichthyologist, then Curator of Fishes at the Australian Museum
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1934 -
Award - Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
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1936
Career position - Joint-Founder of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History
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1940 - 1941
Career position - President of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
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1942 - 1946
Career position - Seconded to the Division of Fisheries at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
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1959 - 1960
Career position - President of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
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1963 - 1964
Career position - President of the Linnean Society of New South Wales
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1967
Award - Australian Natural History Medallion received from the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria
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1970
Award - Clarke Memorial Medal received from the Royal Society of New South Wales
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1973 - 1974
Career position - President of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
View the full record at
Encyclopedia of Australian Science
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