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Harry Allan
Harry Howard Barton Allan CBE (27 April 1882 – 29 October 1957) was a New Zealand teacher, botanist, scientific administrator, and writer. Despite never receiving a formal education in botany, he became an eminent scientist, publishing over 100 scientific papers, three introductory handbooks on New Zealand plants, and completing the first volume of a flora in his lifetime.
Born in Nelson, he was educated at Nelson College and later Auckland University College, from which he graduated MA in 1908. He worked for many years as a teacher of English and agricultural studies at secondary schools around New Zealand. Throughout his teaching career, he became increasingly interested in and knowledgeable of botany, and wrote several articles in academic journals. He often collaborated and spoke with botanists, such as Alfred and Leonard Cockayne. For his lengthy botanical study of Mount Peel, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) in 1923. He became a member of the Linnean society and the New Zealand Institute, and was appointed a systematic botanist for the Plant Research Station in 1928.
He spent twenty years working there, becoming head of the botany division when the research institute was split up in 1936 by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (D.S.I.R). Allan oversaw and contributed to vast amounts of research surrounding New Zealand's plants—particularly on grasses, pollen, and genetics. He retired in 1948 and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (C.B.E) for services to botany in New Zealand in the King's Birthday Honours that year. In retirement he worked on volume one of Flora of New Zealand, the first in a series of books describing the introduced and endemic plants of New Zealand. He died before it was published in 1957, aged 75.
Harry Allan was born on 27 April 1882 in Nelson, New Zealand. He was the youngest of Robert Allan, a draper, and Emma Maria Lewis' six children, and initially attended Nelson Central School. The headmaster there, Frederick Gibbs, introduced him to botany and he later won a town scholarship to Nelson College. There Allan excelled both academically and athletically, playing for the college in cricket and football, as well as winning prizes for literature and gymnastics. He also began part of his university degree (BA) there.
After graduating Nelson College he taught at various schools, beginning in 1903 in the mining town of Denniston, on the West Coast of the South Island. He later taught at King's College, in Auckland, as well as in Napier, before receiving a posting at Waitaki Boys' High School (Oamaru) in March 1907, as the "fourth assistant residential master." He joined in the second term of the year and became master of the preparatory department, in his first year overseeing its increase from 3 to 17 students. In 1908 he graduated from the University of Auckland, gaining his MA, and continued working at Waitaki. In 1913 Allan published an article in an academic journal, the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, reporting the results of growing different potato varieties at Waitaki. There he later became the master of English in 1915, and, at the request of the Ministry of Education for more practical subjects to be taught, gave a course on agriculture. While teaching he often consulted Alfred Cockayne, who was at the time working for the Department of Agriculture, to help him with identifying weed and grass species. Through him he met his father, the botanist Leonard Cockayne, who often asked for weed specimens and would support his admission into the Linnean Society in 1917.
After leaving Waitaki at the end of 1916, he continued working—often with plants—at Ashburton High School, where he was agriculture master beginning in 1917. Allan also took charge of recording the results of experiments on the school farm. In 1917 the agricultural course he gave suffered from a lack of laboratory equipment and adequate space. At the end of the year Hugo Friedlander donated £500, equivalent to $29,990 in 2025, towards the building of a laboratory, which began early in 1918 and was finished in April of that year. Allan left Ashburton and began working at Fielding Agricultural High School, where he was English master, in early 1922.
The next six years he spent balancing his work teaching and his increasingly notable botanical research, much of it in collaboration with Cockayne. In 1923 he received his Doctor of Science (DSc) for a study of the flora of Mount Peel, a mountain in South Canterbury. In the introduction he writes: "I am deeply indebted to my friend and master, Dr. L. Cockayne, [...] for his unfailing interest and encouragement in all my botanical work, and for his help and criticism during the investigation." In writing his thesis he began collecting specimens of lichens, and started a correspondence with Gustaf Einar Du Rietz, who assisted in identifying them.
In 1927 Allan received a grant from the Royal Society of London to spend three months studying New Zealand plant hybrids in the field; from this he published several studies. Most involved cataloguing and identifying hybrids from around New Zealand, though he also performed crosses. Chief among his discoveries was the proof, using the genera Coprosma and Rubus, of the origin of a typical plant hybrid swarm. In 1927 he also published a monograph of the New Zealand members of the genus Hebe, describing several new species together with Cockayne. He was made a systematic botanist at the Plant Research Station (under the D.S.I.R), at Massey University in August 1928, retiring from teaching. In July 1928, prior to taking up his position at the institute, he published his first book: New Zealand Trees and Shrubs; How to Identify Them, a guide for the identification of New Zealand plants.
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Harry Allan
Harry Howard Barton Allan CBE (27 April 1882 – 29 October 1957) was a New Zealand teacher, botanist, scientific administrator, and writer. Despite never receiving a formal education in botany, he became an eminent scientist, publishing over 100 scientific papers, three introductory handbooks on New Zealand plants, and completing the first volume of a flora in his lifetime.
Born in Nelson, he was educated at Nelson College and later Auckland University College, from which he graduated MA in 1908. He worked for many years as a teacher of English and agricultural studies at secondary schools around New Zealand. Throughout his teaching career, he became increasingly interested in and knowledgeable of botany, and wrote several articles in academic journals. He often collaborated and spoke with botanists, such as Alfred and Leonard Cockayne. For his lengthy botanical study of Mount Peel, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) in 1923. He became a member of the Linnean society and the New Zealand Institute, and was appointed a systematic botanist for the Plant Research Station in 1928.
He spent twenty years working there, becoming head of the botany division when the research institute was split up in 1936 by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (D.S.I.R). Allan oversaw and contributed to vast amounts of research surrounding New Zealand's plants—particularly on grasses, pollen, and genetics. He retired in 1948 and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (C.B.E) for services to botany in New Zealand in the King's Birthday Honours that year. In retirement he worked on volume one of Flora of New Zealand, the first in a series of books describing the introduced and endemic plants of New Zealand. He died before it was published in 1957, aged 75.
Harry Allan was born on 27 April 1882 in Nelson, New Zealand. He was the youngest of Robert Allan, a draper, and Emma Maria Lewis' six children, and initially attended Nelson Central School. The headmaster there, Frederick Gibbs, introduced him to botany and he later won a town scholarship to Nelson College. There Allan excelled both academically and athletically, playing for the college in cricket and football, as well as winning prizes for literature and gymnastics. He also began part of his university degree (BA) there.
After graduating Nelson College he taught at various schools, beginning in 1903 in the mining town of Denniston, on the West Coast of the South Island. He later taught at King's College, in Auckland, as well as in Napier, before receiving a posting at Waitaki Boys' High School (Oamaru) in March 1907, as the "fourth assistant residential master." He joined in the second term of the year and became master of the preparatory department, in his first year overseeing its increase from 3 to 17 students. In 1908 he graduated from the University of Auckland, gaining his MA, and continued working at Waitaki. In 1913 Allan published an article in an academic journal, the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, reporting the results of growing different potato varieties at Waitaki. There he later became the master of English in 1915, and, at the request of the Ministry of Education for more practical subjects to be taught, gave a course on agriculture. While teaching he often consulted Alfred Cockayne, who was at the time working for the Department of Agriculture, to help him with identifying weed and grass species. Through him he met his father, the botanist Leonard Cockayne, who often asked for weed specimens and would support his admission into the Linnean Society in 1917.
After leaving Waitaki at the end of 1916, he continued working—often with plants—at Ashburton High School, where he was agriculture master beginning in 1917. Allan also took charge of recording the results of experiments on the school farm. In 1917 the agricultural course he gave suffered from a lack of laboratory equipment and adequate space. At the end of the year Hugo Friedlander donated £500, equivalent to $29,990 in 2025, towards the building of a laboratory, which began early in 1918 and was finished in April of that year. Allan left Ashburton and began working at Fielding Agricultural High School, where he was English master, in early 1922.
The next six years he spent balancing his work teaching and his increasingly notable botanical research, much of it in collaboration with Cockayne. In 1923 he received his Doctor of Science (DSc) for a study of the flora of Mount Peel, a mountain in South Canterbury. In the introduction he writes: "I am deeply indebted to my friend and master, Dr. L. Cockayne, [...] for his unfailing interest and encouragement in all my botanical work, and for his help and criticism during the investigation." In writing his thesis he began collecting specimens of lichens, and started a correspondence with Gustaf Einar Du Rietz, who assisted in identifying them.
In 1927 Allan received a grant from the Royal Society of London to spend three months studying New Zealand plant hybrids in the field; from this he published several studies. Most involved cataloguing and identifying hybrids from around New Zealand, though he also performed crosses. Chief among his discoveries was the proof, using the genera Coprosma and Rubus, of the origin of a typical plant hybrid swarm. In 1927 he also published a monograph of the New Zealand members of the genus Hebe, describing several new species together with Cockayne. He was made a systematic botanist at the Plant Research Station (under the D.S.I.R), at Massey University in August 1928, retiring from teaching. In July 1928, prior to taking up his position at the institute, he published his first book: New Zealand Trees and Shrubs; How to Identify Them, a guide for the identification of New Zealand plants.
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