Walter Lawry Waterhouse MC (31 August 1887 – 9 December 1969) was an Australian agricultural scientist, a

fellow of the Australian Academy of Science The Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science is made up of about 500 Australian scientists. Scientists judged by their peers to have made an exceptional contribution to knowledge in their field may be elected to Fellowship of the Academy ...

and

Clarke Medal The Clarke Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of New South Wales, the oldest learned society in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, for distinguished work in the Natural sciences. The medal is named in honour of the Reverend William Bran ...

list.

Early life

Walter Waterhouse was born in

West Maitland, New South Wales Maitland () is a city in the Lower Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia and the seat of Maitland City Council, situated on the Hunter River approximately by road north of Sydney and north-west of Newcastle. It is on the New England ...

, the son of educator John Waterhouse and the grandson of

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...

minister

Jabez Waterhouse Jabez Bunting Waterhouse (19 April 1821 – 18 January 1891) was an English-born Australian Methodist minister and a leading legislator within Methodist conferences.Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

into Fijian. Walter was educated at Sydney Boys' High School, where his father was headmaster, and later at

Hawkesbury Agricultural College Hawkesbury Agricultural College was the first agricultural college in New South Wales, Australia, based in Richmond. It operated from 1891 to 1989. It was established on 10 March 1891, and formally opened by Minister for Mines and Agriculture ...

where he gained a diploma in 1907. Sometime during the period of 1906–10 Walter was headmaster at the Methodist Mission Boys High School at

Davuilevu Davuilevu, the name of the site of three Methodist Church of Fiji institutionsDavuilevu Theological College the Bible School for Catechist training, and Lelean Memorial School. It can be translated as "the large conch shell." Information The use ...

in Fiji.Bibliographic note by Nanette Goodsell and Susan Myatt
/ref> There is a photograph of him from this time a
Australian Museum image "M. Whan, J.H.L. and W.L. Waterhouse, Davuilevu, Fiji"
He enlisted in World War I, and was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

Scientific career

In 1918 Waterhouse studied at the

Imperial College of Science and Technology Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, London, and obtained its diploma in 1921. He developed varieties of wheat which resisted

rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH ...

. He was awarded the

by the

Royal Society of New South Wales The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. The Governor of New South Wales is the vice-regal patron of the Society. The Society was established as the Philosophical Society of Australasia on 27 June ...

in 1943. A full biography of W.L.W. can be found a
AAS Biographical Memoirs
Further biographical particulars are available a

References

1887 births 1969 deaths Australian agronomists 20th-century Australian botanists Recipients of the Military Cross Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Farrer Medal recipients People from Maitland, New South Wales {{Australia-botanist-stub