Spencer, Walter Baldwin (1860 - 1929)

Spencer arrived in Australia in 1887 to take up the Chair of Professor of Biology, University of Melbourne 1887 - 1919. Spencer was the first to introduce the systematic study of zoology to the University of Melbourne. Along with Masson and later Lyle, Spencer was crucial in modernising and raising the status and quality of Science at the University of Melbourne. An active administrator and teacher, he instigated a new building and laboratories at the University, and a museum.

Events

23 June 1860	Born Lancashire, England.
1884	Graduated from Oxford (BA)
1886	Lincoln College Fellow
1887	Appointed to the foundation chair of biology at the University of Melbourne
1888	Foundation of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science. Spencer attended inaugural meeting of the Associaton, and the Protection of Native Birds and Mammals Committee formed following a motion by Spencer.
1890	Appointed first Victorian Secretary of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science
1891 - 1893	President of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria
1894	Zoologist and Photographer in Horn Expedition
1895	Ttrustee of the National Gallery of Victoria
1895 - 1897	President of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria
1899	Honorary Director of the Natural Museum of Victoria
1899	Honorary Director of the National Museum of Victoria
1900	Awarded FRS
1904	Awarded CMG
1904	President of the Royal Society of Victoria
1904	President of the Royal Society of Victoria
1907	Spencer suggests to the Government that it set up a committee to advise the government on all matters concerned with the preservation or destruction of Australian fauna, i.e. national parks.
1916	Awarded KCMG
1919	Retired as Emeritus Professor
1928	Resignation as Director of the Natural Museum of Victoria
14 July 1929	Died Navarin Island, Tierra del Fuego.

Dean

• Office of the Dean of Science, Faculty of Science (1903 - )

  [1915 - 1919]

Professorial Chair

• Chair of Biology (1887 - 1919)

  First Professor of Biology

  [1887 - 1919]

• 'Spencer, Walter Baldwin (1860 - 1929), Biographical Entry', in Bright Sparcs, 2001 edn, 2001, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P000791b.htm.