Edgar Ravenswood Waite

Who was Edgar Ravenswood Waite?

Edgar Ravenswood Waite was a British/Australian zoologist, ichthyologist, herpetologist, and ornithologist.

Waite was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the second son of John Waite, a bank clerk, and his wife Jane, née Vause. Waite was educated at Leeds Parish Church Middle Class School and at the Victoria University of Manchester. In 1888 he was appointed sub-curator of the Leeds Museum and three years later was made curator. On 7 April 1892 Waite married Rose Edith Green at St. Matthew's parish church, Leeds. In 1893 Waite became zoologist at the Australian Museum, Sydney, he was the Fish Curator there from 1893-1906.

Waite accompanied Charles Hedley of the Australian Museum on the 1896 Funafuti Coral Reef Boring Expedition of the Royal Society under Professor William Sollas and Professor Edgeworth David. Following the expedition to Funafuti in the Ellice Islands Waite published an account of The mammals, reptiles, and fishes of Funafuti.

In the scientific discipline of herpetology he described several new species of reptiles. In 1898 Waite published Popular Account of Australian Snakes.

He was with the trawling expedition conducted by the H.M.C.S Thetis and wrote the report on the fish, and he also reported on the fish trawled by the Western Australian government. He was involved in several expeditions to sub-Anatarctic islands - including the 1907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition, New Guinea, and the Australian interior. By the time Waite's employment ended at the Australian Museum, the collection contained 18,000 specimens. He was later the Curator of the Canterbury Museum in New Zealand for eight years, before accepting the Directorship at the South Australian Museum.