George Hudson (entomologist)

Born in London, England, on Easter Saturday, 1867 Hudson was the sixth child of Emily Jane Carnal and Charles Hudson, an artist and stained-glass window designer. By the age of 14 he had built up a collection of British insects, and had published a paper in The Entomologist. In 1881 Hudson moved with his father to Nelson, New Zealand. He worked on a farm, and in 1883, aged 16, he began working at the post office in Wellington, where he eventually became chief clerk, retiring in 1918.

Hudson was a member of the 1907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition. Its main aim was to extend the magnetic survey of New Zealand by investigating the Auckland and Campbell islands but botanical, biological, and zoological surveys were also conducted. The expedition also rescued castaways from the Dundonald, which had been shipwrecked in the Auckland Islands.

Hudson is credited with proposing modern-day daylight saving time.{{Cite web|last=Satran|first=Joe|date=2012-03-09|title=The Man Who Invented Daylight Savings Time|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/daylight-savings-time-history-george-vernon-hudson_n_1333378.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114120951/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/daylight-savings-time-history-george-vernon-hudson_n_1333378|archive-date=2019-11-14|access-date=2017-01-17|website=The Huffington Post|publisher=AOL Inc.}} His shift-work job gave him leisure time to collect insects, and led him to value after-hours daylight.{{DNZB|Gibbs|George|3H42|Hudson, George Vernon|11 March 2012}} In 1895, he presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society proposing a two-hour daylight-saving shift,{{cite journal |author=G. V. Hudson |title=On seasonal time-adjustment in countries south of lat. 30° |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute |year=1895 |volume=28 |pages=734 |url=http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_28/rsnz_28_00_006110.html }} and after considerable interest was expressed in Christchurch, he followed up in an 1898 paper.{{cite journal |author= G. V. Hudson |title=On seasonal time |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute |year=1898 |volume=31 |pages=577–588 |url=http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_31/rsnz_31_00_008570.html}} In 1933, Hudson was the first recipient (together with Ernest Rutherford) of the T. K. Sidey Medal, set up by the Royal Society of New Zealand from funds collected to commemorate the passing of the Summer-Time Act 1927.{{cite web |title=Background of the Medal |url=http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/awards/sidey-medal/background/ |publisher=Royal Society of New Zealand |access-date=7 August 2015}}{{cite web |title=Recipients |url=http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/awards/sidey-medal/recipients/ |publisher=Royal Society of New Zealand |access-date=7 August 2015}}

Another Briton, William Willett, championed the use of daylight saving time. It was made law there in 1916.

Hudson's collection of insects, the largest in New Zealand, is housed in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Between 1881 and 1946, Hudson recorded information in three handwritten volumes that described thousands of species, inventing his own coding system. In 2018, Te Papa launched a crowd-sourcing project calling for digital volunteers to help decipher those codes, which will then allow conservation entomologists to compare Hudson's records with the status of those same insects today.{{Cite journal|last=Button|first=Sam|date=January 2019|title=Cracking the Insect Code|url=https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/science/help-crack-insect-code-hudson-collection-te-papa/|journal=North & South|volume=394|pages=27|access-date=27 July 2019|archive-date=27 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727011204/https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/science/help-crack-insect-code-hudson-collection-te-papa/|url-status=dead}}

• 1919 – Original Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand{{Cite web|url=https://royalsociety.org.nz/who-we-are/our-people/our-fellows/all-fellows/g-i/|title=Royal Society Te Apārangi – List of all Fellows – G-I|website=royalsociety.org.nz|access-date=2019-05-05}}
• 1923 – Hector Medal{{Cite Q |Q77132985}}
• 1929 – Hutton Medal
• 1933 – T. K. Sidey Medal (together with Ernest Rutherford)

Hudson's wife, Florence, died in 1935. They left one daughter, Florence Stella Gibbs.{{Cite web|title=Mnesarchella stellae Gibbs, 2019|url=https://www.gbif.org/species/188307385|access-date=2021-12-18|website=www.gbif.org|language=en}} Hudson died on 5 April 1946 at his home "Hillview" in the Wellington suburb of Karori.

• 1892: [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/34950 An Elementary Manual of New Zealand entomology: Being an introduction to the study of our native insects.] London: West, Newman, & Co.{{Cite book|last=Hudson|first=George Vernon|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44096|title=An Elementary Manual of New Zealand Entomology: Being an Introduction to the Study of Our Native Insects|publisher=West, Newman, & Co.|year=1892|location=London|language=en}}
• 1898: [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44551 New Zealand Moths and Butterflies (Macro-Lepidoptera)] London: West, Newman, & Co.{{Cite book|last=Hudson|first=George Vernon|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44551|title=New Zealand Moths and Butterflies (Macro-Lepidoptera)|publisher=West, Newman, & Co.|year=1898|location=London|language=en}}
• 1904: {{cite book|title=New Zealand Neuroptera : a popular introduction to the life-histories and habits of may-flies, dragon-flies, caddis-flies and allied insects inhabiting New Zealand, including notes on their relation to angling|date=1904|publisher=West, Newman & Co.|location=London|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35228#page/5/mode/1up|access-date=21 January 2016}}
• 1928: {{cite book|title=The butterflies and moths of New Zealand|date=1928|publisher=Ferguson & Osborn Ltd.|location=Wellington|url=http://www.bugz.org.nz/WebForms/ResultDetails.aspx?CurrentDoc=C7E94865-492F-45DA-9777-CC8E1E8B1438&back=true&NewDoc=true&searchType=1&SearchString=Hudson|access-date=10 October 2017}}
• 1950: {{cite book|title=Fragments of New Zealand entomology. – a popular account of all New Zealand cicadas. The natural history of the New Zealand glow-worm. A second supplement to the butterflies and moths of New Zealand and notes on many other native insects.|date=1950|publisher=Ferguson & Osborn Ltd.|location=Wellington|url=http://www.bugz.org.nz/WebForms/ResultDetails.aspx?CurrentDoc=93CFEB68-5CA5-4EBF-8565-4ED56C028B96&back=true&NewDoc=true&searchType=1&SearchString=Hudson|access-date=15 July 2018}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Wikispecies|George Vernon Hudson}}

{{Commons category|George Vernon Hudson}}

• [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/Theme.aspx?irn=2413 G V Hudson collection] at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/Party.aspx?irn=27774 Record of George Vernon Hudson in Collections Online, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa]
• {{Gutenberg author |id=42570| name=George Vernon Hudson}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=George Vernon Hudson |sopt=t}}

{{Recipients of the Hector Memorial Medal}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hudson, George}}

Category:1867 births

Category:1946 deaths

Category:New Zealand entomologists

Category:Entomologists from London

Category:English emigrants to New Zealand

Category:20th-century New Zealand zoologists

Category:20th-century British zoologists