I have been pondering the honourific for New Zealand Fairy Tern a while.
The type of S. nereis davisae was supposedly “collected and presented” by Sir Samuel Edward Scott to the BMNH in 1895 along with 58 other New Zealand Birds. (Ibis series 7 vol 2: 592)
So who was Sir Samuel Edward Scott? Apparently an “enormously rich” banker and British Conservative Party politician.
“Sir Samuel Scott, 6th Bt. was born in 1873. He married Lady Sophie Beatrix Mary Cadogan, daughter of George Henry Cadogan, 5th Earl Cadogan and Lady Beatrix Jane Craven, on 29 June 1896. He died on 20 February 1943.”
That s a bit of a red-herring I think. There’s quite a lot on the internet about how his wife left him for Lord Delamere in 1899 and his undistinguished career in Politics but despite extensive searches no evidence of Sir Samuel Scott coming to NZ can be gleamed. So where did Scott get these birds? And did that have any bearing on the name Mathews & Iredale used?
One possibility I briefly considered was from John King Davis who “knocked about” NZ for a bit in the 1890s (he of course served as Chief Officer of the Nimrod during Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition in 1908–1909. He was Captain of the Aurora and second in command of Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition in 1911–1914). But he was a batchelor…
Possible but unlikely (due to the dates) is the wife of Consett Davis who definitely knew Iredale in the 40s and maybe earlier (Australian Zoologist, Vol. 30(1)).
There is a brief mention of a New Zealander Mr Davis at an BOC meeting in Melbourne in 1912 that HL White was also at. But that’s all I can find about him.
There is a hilarious possibility that Wayne Longmore once told me about
"Many years back John Disney enthralled us with one of his stories about Iredale. Apparently one day at his suburban Sydney house a son/daughter, I can’t recall which so I will refer here to the person being a son, answered a knock on the door. The person was requesting to speak with Tom, and when asked in relation to what they replied ‘I am his son [?] from New Zealand’. Iredale had apparently had a second family over there and had never mentioned it to his second wife Lillian Medland or any of his family."
So I guess I am asking “Does any one on this list know of a Mrs Davis that some time before 1913 either caught the eye of Mathews or Iredale OR might have collected a NZ Fairy Tern for Sir Samuel Edward Scott.”
Cheers Paul
The type of S. nereis davisae was supposedly “collected and presented” by Sir Samuel Edward Scott to the BMNH in 1895 along with 58 other New Zealand Birds. (Ibis series 7 vol 2: 592)
So who was Sir Samuel Edward Scott? Apparently an “enormously rich” banker and British Conservative Party politician.
“Sir Samuel Scott, 6th Bt. was born in 1873. He married Lady Sophie Beatrix Mary Cadogan, daughter of George Henry Cadogan, 5th Earl Cadogan and Lady Beatrix Jane Craven, on 29 June 1896. He died on 20 February 1943.”
That s a bit of a red-herring I think. There’s quite a lot on the internet about how his wife left him for Lord Delamere in 1899 and his undistinguished career in Politics but despite extensive searches no evidence of Sir Samuel Scott coming to NZ can be gleamed. So where did Scott get these birds? And did that have any bearing on the name Mathews & Iredale used?
One possibility I briefly considered was from John King Davis who “knocked about” NZ for a bit in the 1890s (he of course served as Chief Officer of the Nimrod during Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition in 1908–1909. He was Captain of the Aurora and second in command of Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition in 1911–1914). But he was a batchelor…
Possible but unlikely (due to the dates) is the wife of Consett Davis who definitely knew Iredale in the 40s and maybe earlier (Australian Zoologist, Vol. 30(1)).
There is a brief mention of a New Zealander Mr Davis at an BOC meeting in Melbourne in 1912 that HL White was also at. But that’s all I can find about him.
There is a hilarious possibility that Wayne Longmore once told me about
"Many years back John Disney enthralled us with one of his stories about Iredale. Apparently one day at his suburban Sydney house a son/daughter, I can’t recall which so I will refer here to the person being a son, answered a knock on the door. The person was requesting to speak with Tom, and when asked in relation to what they replied ‘I am his son [?] from New Zealand’. Iredale had apparently had a second family over there and had never mentioned it to his second wife Lillian Medland or any of his family."
So I guess I am asking “Does any one on this list know of a Mrs Davis that some time before 1913 either caught the eye of Mathews or Iredale OR might have collected a NZ Fairy Tern for Sir Samuel Edward Scott.”
Cheers Paul
