George Vernon Hudson

George Vernon Hudson

An umbrella, held upside down under flowering shrubs in the forest, will often be found swarming with beetles after the plants have been sharply tapped with a stout walking stick … The dead bodies of birds and animals also contain peculiar species; they may be held over the umbrella and shaken into it …

One of Hudson’s tips on collecting insects, from GV Hudson, Manual of New Zealand Entomology, West, Newman & Co, 1892

Not all naturalists had family money or wealthy patrons. George Hudson funded his love of nature with a relatively mundane day job as a postal clerk. As well as providing him with an income, his job involved shift-work, giving him ample time to pursue his twin passions of entomology and astronomy.

Hudson was born and educated in London, where he started a natural-history diary, devoted almost exclusively to insects, when he was 11. One of the most distinctive things about Hudson’s diaries, and later his books, are the beautifully painted illustrations – a skill he learnt at the hand  of his father, who was a stained-glass artist.

In 1881, Hudson came to New Zealand with his family and, in 1883, started working for the post office. In his spare time, he devoted himself to cataloguing New Zealand’s insects. His first book, An Elementary Manual of New Zealand Entomology, was completed when he was just 19 years old. He continued writing and illustrating popular books on New Zealand’s moths, butterflies and beetles throughout his life. Lepidoptera – moths and butterflies – were Hudson’s main interest and, as well as collecting them in the bush-clad hills around Wellington, he bred them at home, to better observe and illustrate their life cycles.

Hudson, who had disliked school, was critical of New Zealand’s educational system and held meetings at his Karori home for young boys eager to learn more about insects and astronomy. He was also critical of professional science; when the DSIR’s entomology group invited Hudson to be involved, he declined, choosing to retain entomology as a private hobby rather than making it his profession, where government priorities would guide his research.

In 1895, Hudson presented a paper advocating seasonal time adjustment – daylight saving. His idea was initially ridiculed, but in 1927, with political support, it was successfully adopted. In 1918, his discovery of a bright new star, Nova Aquilae, attracted international attention.

In the true style of a gentleman naturalist, Hudson did all his fieldwork in a three-piece suit, complete with watch-chain. Beneath his suit, much to his grandson George’s astonishment, he wore head-to-toe pink woollen underwear. This didn’t deter young George, however, and he too became an entomologist. George Gibbs did not share Hudson’s disdain for professional science. Though he did continue his grandfather’s tradition of publishing popular books on New Zealand’s insect life, he also became an entomology academic at Victoria University.

By Rebecca Priestley

Medals and awards

Hector Medal 1923, Hutton Medal 1929

Further reading

George Vernon Hudson biography – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website

36 articles written by Hudson, published in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, are available online:

Articles by George Hudson – Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand website

Permission of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga O Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of this image

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