SCANNED

BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD — WAINWRIGHT, PEREGRINE HARTLEY

Office of the Registrar  ·  Consolidated from Society files

Born 1851, Colony of Victoria, Australia. Field naturalist.

Wainwright’s early standing rested on fieldwork conducted before his association with the Society.  A paper of 1877, well received in draft, was revised prior to publication at the request of the issuing institution.  The Society holds both versions.  Comparison is instructive, and is left to the member.

He was among the earliest of the Society’s field appointments, a founding member whose name appears in the Charter and whose signature appears on rather less formal documents besides.

He married Eleanor Haversham, botanical illustrator, who accompanied him in the field until her death at Batavia.  Her illustrations remain among the most consulted items in the collection, though they are restricted from lending.

In 1893 Wainwright undertook the Mauritius expedition whose results are catalogued as the Wainwright Rediscovery.  The expedition is documented in his journals, his correspondence, and a cargo manifest, held complete. Members consulting the journals are advised that Wainwright’s field prose is direct, and that he economized on politeness in roughly the proportion that he economized on supplies.

Of his later years the file says less than would be convenient. Correspondence became intermittent, and then ceased. His file remains open.

[Filed by order of the Registrar]