Harold Oswald Fletcher (1903 - abt. 1996)

Biography

Harold Fletcher was born in February 1903 at or about Summer Hill in New South Wales, Australia. He was the son of Isaac H. Fletcher and his wife Isabella.

Harold Oswald Fletcher was a curator and palaeontologist, associated with the Australian Museum from 1918 and retiring as deputy director in 1967. Fletcher was awarded the Polar Medal in 1934, for his contributions to Antarctic research. Having joining two journeys there as an assistant biologist. He wrote a personal account of these expeditions known as the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition to that continent led by Douglas Mawson from 1929–1931, titled Antarctic days with Mawson. It was published in 1984 by Angus & Robertson.

Harold Fletcher was also associated with such expeditions as:

• 1922 – Lake Eyre in a party led by hydrographer Mr. G.H. Halligan.
• 1929 – Mt Kosciuszko Harold travelled to the Kosciusko plateau with his colleagues William Boardman and Anthony Musgrave.
• 1929-31 - British-Australian-New Zealand Antarctic Expedition led by Sir Douglas Mawson.
• 1933 - Central North NSW in an expedition where bones from the Diprotodon and the Phascolonus (giant wombat) were discovered.
• 1936 – Northern Territory and Queensland where Harold and his colleague Mr. W. Barnes collected fossils from the MacDonnell Ranges, the Northern Territory and North Queensland.
• 1939 - Simpson Desert This expedition, led by Dr C.T. Madigan.
• 1952 - Australian Museum Scientific Expedition to Central and NW Australia.
• 1954 - Mootwingee near Broken Hill where Harold accompanied Oliver Chalmers Curator of the Minerals at the Australian Museum.
• 1956 - Canowindra where Harold travelled to with his colleague Mr. K. Mayfield to view and catalogue the fossil slabs from the Devonian Period, turned up during road work there.

Harold Fletcher passed away before 2000, possibly as early as 1996. He was interviewed by Australian author and cartoonist Mick Joffe for his collection, published in 2001 as: Living Relics of Australia (Volume 2). Where Joffe states that he interviewed Harold at the age of 95, so this would have been about 1998.

Harold Oswald Fletcher had married Phyllis Marjorie Buttel, known as Molly, in 1937. And in his interview with Mick Joffe in the late 1990s Harold states they had been married for 62 years, so you would assume she was still alive then as well.

Sources

• New South Wales Wales Births, Deaths & Marriages. BIRTH: FLETCHER, HAROLD O - registration no. 9830/1903 - father: ISAAC H. - mother: ISABELLA - district: ASHFIELD. first accessed online on the 26th of December, 2023 from the NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages search at: https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/births?

• New South Wales Wales Births, Deaths & Marriages" MARRIAGE: registration no. 15292/1937 - groom: FLETCHER, HAROLD OSWALD - bride: BUTTEL, PHYLLIS MARJORIE - district: ROZELLE. first accessed online on the 26th of December, 2023 from the NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages search at: https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/marriages?

• Harold Oswald Fletcher from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. first accessed online on the 26th of December, 2023 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Oswald_Fletcher

• Cape Fletcher from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. first accessed online on the 26th of December, 2023 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Fletcher

• HAROLD OSWALD FLETCHER, Paleontologist from the Smith's Weekly (Sydney, NSW : 1919 - 1950) of Saturday 4 March 1950, Page 15. first accessed on TROVE on the 26th of December, 2023 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/235987744

• MEDAL AWARDS from The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) of Tuesday 1 May 1934, Page 2. first accessed on TROVE on the 26th of December, 2023 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2350520

• Fletcher, Harold Oswald (1903 - 1996) from The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation first accessed online on the 26th of December, 2023 at: https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P002009b.htm

• Fletcher from The Australian Museum website. first accessed online on the 26th of December, 2023 at: https://australian.museum/about/history/people/fletcher/

• Harold Fletcher Author: Prue Walker - Updated 15/11/2018. from The Australian Museum website. first accessed online on the 26th of December, 2023 at: https://australian.museum/about/history/people/harold-fletcher/

• Joffe, Mick, 2001, Living Relics of Australia: Volume 2, pps. 48-52, Mick and Phyl Joffe, Berowra Heights, N.S.W. (ISBN: 0957904908)

• British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. first accessed online on the 26th of December, 2023 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Australian_and_New_Zealand_Antarctic_Research_Expedition