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Brian John Marples

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Brian John Marples in 1967

Brian John Marples FRSNZ (31 March 1907 – 1997) was a British zoologist who spent most of his career in New Zealand.

Early years

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Marples was born in Hessle, Yorkshire, in north-eastern England. He was educated at Kingsmead in Cheshire, and St Bees in Cumberland before attending Exeter College at Oxford University. He graduated as a BA from Oxford in 1929, subsequently obtaining a MSc from the University of Manchester in 1931, and MA from Oxford in 1933. He married Mary (Molly) Joyce Ransford in 1931.[1]

Career

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From 1930 to 1936 Marples worked as Assistant Lecturer in Zoology at Manchester. In 1937 he went to New Zealand to become Professor of Zoology at the University of Otago, a position he served in for 30 years before retiring in 1967 to Woodstock, near Oxford in southern England. He published numerous papers on a wide variety of zoological topics, especially in the fields of ornithology, arachnology and fossil penguins.[1] He was also a cofounder of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand.[2]

Honours

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  • 1953 – Fellow, Royal Society of New Zealand
  • 1980 – Honorary Member, Ornithological Society of New Zealand

References

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  1. ^ a b Fordyce, Ewan (2012). "Brian John Marples BA MA MSc FRSNZ FAZ". 2000 Academy Yearbook. Royal Society of New Zealand. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  2. ^ Westerskov, Kaj E. (1999). "Obituary: Professor Brian John Marples" (PDF). Notornis. 46 (4): 503–506. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 May 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2014.