Baden Powell (malacologist)

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Arthur William Baden Powell
Auckland Museum and Institute staff group portrait. front row: A.W.B. Powell
Born4 April 1901
Wellington, New Zealand
Died1 July 1987
Auckland, New Zealand
Other namesA. W. B. Powell
Occupation(s)Malacologist, naturalist, palaeontologist

Arthur William Baden Powell CBE (4 April 1901 – 1 July 1987) was a New Zealand malacologist, naturalist and palaeontologist, a major influence in the study and classification of New Zealand molluscs through much of the 20th century. He was known to his friends and family by his third name, "Baden".

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

The name Baden had been a given name in a Powell family since 1731, when Susannah Powell née Thistlethwayte (1696–1762) gave to her child (1731–1792) the maiden name of her mother, Susannah Baden (1663–1692).[1] The name Baden, particularly when associated with the surname Powell, became famous in 1900–1901, the year Arthur William Baden Powell was born, because of the siege of Mafeking, the most famous British action in the Second Boer War, which turned the British commander of the besieged, Robert Baden-Powell, into a national hero. Throughout the British Empire, babies were named after him. No family connection has yet been established between Arthur William Baden Powell and Robert Baden-Powell.

Powell was born at Wellington, New Zealand, on 4 April 1901,[2] to driver Arthur Powell, and his wife, Minnie Sablofski. His schooling was in Auckland, and he trained in printing at the Elam School of Fine Arts.[2] This training, and his interest in conchology, set him on his life's work.

Career[edit]

From 1916 until 1929, Powell was the honorary conchologist at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.[2] Powell started writing scientific papers on mollusca in 1921, and became one of the few experts in New Zealand shellfish. From 1926 to 1938, Powell undertook comprehensive surveys of the Waitematā and Manukau harbours.[2]

He was appointed to the Auckland War Memorial Museum as palaeontologist and conchologist in 1929,[2] working on some lesser-known mollusc families. He also studied New Zealand's big land snails, the Paryphanta, and the Placostylus flax snails. In 1931, Powell founded the Auckland Shell Club, also known as the Conchology Section of the Auckland Museum Institute.[3][4] From 1932 Powell participated in dredging expeditions on the British research ship Discovery II exploring coastal Northland and discovering large numbers of new species. Other field trips from the 1930s to 1960 took him to Stewart Island, the Chatham Islands, the Kermadec Islands and the Antarctica and Subantarctic region, resulting in many important papers.

In 1936, Powell was appointed as the assistant director of Auckland War Memorial Museum, a position he held until he retired in 1968.[2] In 1947, Powell published the book Native Animals of New Zealand, a best-selling handbook of native fauna of the country.[2] Powell was a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand from 1940 and was the recipient of the Hector Memorial Medal and Prize in 1947. He also received an honorary DSc in 1956 from the University of New Zealand and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to marine science, in the 1981 New Year Honours.[5]

Powell died on 1 July 1987 in Auckland.

Personal life[edit]

Powell married Isabel Essie Gittos on 19 December 1928, at Devonport in Auckland. They had a son. Gittos died in 1976. Two years later, he married Ida Madoline Worthy (née Hayes) at Whangārei.

Namesake taxa[edit]

Taxa named after him include:

The World Register of Marine Species mentions 837 marine taxa, named by Powell. Many have become synonyms.[7]

Publications[edit]

Powell wrote over 100 scientific papers and three books. His 500-page New Zealand Mollusca, published in 1979, was a gigantic and important undertaking, the result of 50 years of single-handed work.

Bibliography[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Ancestor Map for Reverend Professor Baden Powell". www.pinetreeweb.com. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Auckland War Memorial Museum News Number 31" (PDF). Museum Quarterly. 31. Auckland: Auckland War Memorial Museum. 1 September 1987. ISSN 0111-2252. Wikidata Q115749488.
  3. ^ Beu, Alan; Marshall, Bruce; Ponder, Winston (2003). "Richard Kenneth ('Dick') Dell, 1920–2002: obituary, bibliography and a list of his taxa". Molluscan Research. 23: 85–99.
  4. ^ Thwaites, I. G.; Gill, B. J.; Blom, W. (2015). "Walter Oliver Cernohorsky F.L.S. Surveyor, malacologist – 1927–2014". Records of the Auckland Museum. 50: 13–18. ISSN 1174-9202. JSTOR 90014737. Wikidata Q58628995.
  5. ^ "No. 48469". The London Gazette (3rd supplement). 31 December 1980. p. 40.
  6. ^ O'Connor A. C. (June) 1945. Notes on the Eggs of New Zealand Paryphantidae, With Description of a New Subgenus. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, volume 5, 1945–46, pages 54-57.
  7. ^ WoRMS: taxa named by A.W.B. Powell

External links[edit]