Person

St John, Percival Reginald Harry (1872 - 1944)

Born
11 May 1872
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died
12 August 1944
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Botanical collector and Botanist
Alternative Names
  • Saint John, P.R.H. (Also known as)

Summary

Percy St John joined the staff of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens in 1883 as Assistant Label Writer and progressed to become Storekeeper, Seedsman and Classifier in 1924. As Classifier he had charge of the Economic Botany Museum in the Gardens and added many specimens to the Museum. St John was noted for his wide knowledge on the flora and fauna of Victoria and his expertise in Eucalyptus. He was President of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria from 1929 to 1930. Over 3,600 specimens collected by St John are in the National Herbarium of Victoria.

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Details

Chronology

1883 - 1900
Career position - Assistant Label Writer, Melbourne Botanic Gardens
1900 - 1917
Career position - Painter and Writer, Melbourne Botanic Gardens
1913
Taxonomy event - St John was commemorated in Eucalyptus stjohnii R.T.Bak.
1917 - 1924
Career position - Head Gardener, Melbourne Botanic Gardens
1924 - 1937
Career position - Storekeeper, Seedsman and Classifier, Melbourne Botanic Gardens
1929
Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus langii Maiden & Blakely. St John collected the type
1929 - 1930
Career position - President, Field Naturalists Club of Victoria
1937
Life event - Retired

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

  • Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

Books

  • Kellow, A.; Bayly, M.; and Ladiges, P. Y., Report on the Grimwade plant collection of Percival St John and botanical exploration of Mt Buffalo National Park (Victoria, Australia) (Carlton, Vic.: School of Botany, University of Melbourne, 2007), 52 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Fletcher, R.J., 'Mount Buffalo and Percival R.H. St. John', The Victorian naturalist, 115 (5) (1998), 192-200. Details

Resources

See also

  • Aitken, Richard and Looker, Michael eds, The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2002), 700 pp. Details
  • Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts: short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023

EOAS ID: biogs/P001518b.htm

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