John Ernest Holloway

Who is John Ernest Holloway?

John Ernest Holloway was a New Zealand Anglican priest, botanist and university lecturer.

He was born in Christchurch, Northern Canterbury, New Zealand on 12 February 1881 and educated at Nelson College and Auckland University College, where he was awarded DSc in 1917.

He took holy orders and served the church from 1909 to 1922. He had developed, however, a keen interest in botany and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1921. He was appointed lecturer in charge of the Botanical Department, University of Otago in 1924.

In 1937 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, his candidature citation reading: "With the exception of a short period spent in Yorkshire and South London, Dr Holloway was actively engaged in parish work in different parts of New Zealand from 1907-1922. Appointed Lecturer in 1924. The greater part of his research was done before he took up academic work. Distinguished for his original work on 'Lycopodium, Tmesipteris, Phylloglossum' and the Hymenphyllaceae; the first to give a complete account of the prothallus and embryogeny of 'Tmesipteris'.