Archer, William Henry - Bright Sparcs Biographical entry

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Archer, William Henry (1825 - 1909)

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Statistician and Amateur scientist

Born: 13 November 1825 London, England. Died: 29 April 1909 Windsor, England.

William Henry Archer, a London actuary, emigrated to Australia in 1852 to work for the Victorian Civil Service. By 1859 he was Registrar General and was Secretary for Lands 1874-78. As well as being an eminent statistician he was an amateur microscopist and agronomist.

Career Highlights

Employed as clerk to read the Act introducing compulsory civil registration of births, deaths and marriages, and recommending a plan for the guidance of the registrar-general 1853. Held some temporary appointments, legal work, articles and gave lectures from 1879. His botanical and zoological studies were encouraged by Ferdinand von Mueller.

Chronology
1841 - 1850 Clerk and Actuarial Trainee at the Medical, Invalid and General Life Assurance Co., UK
1850 - 1852 Managing Actuary of the Catholic, Law and General Life Assurance Co., UK
1852 Arrived in Australia (Melbourne)
1853 Acting Registrar-General of the Victorian Civil Service
1854 - 1859 Assistant Registrar-General with the Victorian Civil Service
1859 - 1863 Registrar-General for the Victorian Civil Service
c. 1864 - Law degree completed at University of Melbourne
1867 Called to the Bar
1868 - 1874 Registrar of Titles in Victoria
1874 - 1878 Secretary of Lands and Survey in Victoria
1878 - 1879 Lawyer for a life assurance company in Sydney

Online Sources

Published Sources

See Also

Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/scripts/fam-dynindex.php3?EID=P000024. [ Details ]
Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/scripts/smv-dynindex.php3?EID=P000024. [ Details ]

Structure based on ISAAR(CPF) - click here for an explanation of the fields.

Prepared by: McCarthy, G.J.
Created: 20 October 1993
Modified: 18 October 2006

Published by The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre on ASAPWeb, 1994 - 2007
Originally published 1994-1999 by Australian Science Archives Project, 1999-2006 by the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre
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Prepared by: Acknowledgements
Updated: 26 February 2007
http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P000024b.htm

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