Harold Finlay

Finlay was born in Comilla, India (now Bangladesh), on 22 March 1901. He was left a paraplegic after contracting poliomyelitis at the age of four, but waas able to participate in field excursions.[1] He graduated from the University of Otago with B.Sc. and M.Sc.[1] He received the Hamilton Memorial Prize of the New Zealand Institute in 1926 and a D.Sc. in 1927.[1] His main research interest was marine and non-marine malacofauna of New Zealand, both recent and fossil. He also specialised on fossil Foraminifera.

After a long period of unemployment, Finlay was appointed to the Geological Survey of New Zealand in 1937,[1] and in the same year he married Jean Dorothy Waterson Gillies.[1] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1939,[2] and was awarded the scoiety's Hector Memorial Medal in 1941.[3]

Finlay died, unexpectedly, at his home in Wellington on 7 April 1951.[1]

Many of Finlay's works were published in Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand abbreviated as Trans. N.Z. Inst.

(incomplete; complete only for publications from Trans. N.Z. Inst.)

1923

• Finlay H. J. 1923. Some Remarks on New Zealand Calliostomidae, with Descriptions of New Tertiary Species. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 54, pp. 99–105.
• Finlay H. J. & McDowall F. H. 1923. Fossiliferous Limestone at Dowling Bay. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 54, pp. 106–114.

1924

• Finlay H. J. 1924. A Chemical Investigation of Pintsch Oil. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 55, 1924,
• Finlay H. J. 1924. Three Fossil Annelids new to New Zealand. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 55, 1924,
• Finlay H. J. 1924. New shells from New Zealand Tertiary Beds. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 55, 1924, pp. 450–479.
• Finlay H. J. 1924. New Zealand Tertiary Rissoids. Trans. N.Z. Inst. vol 55, 1924, pp. 480–490.
• Finlay H. J. 1924. The Molluscan Fauna of Target Gully. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol 55, 1924, pp. 494–516.
• Finlay H. J. 1924. Additions to the Recent Molluscan Fauna of New Zealand. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol 55, 1924, pp. 517–526.
• Finlay H. J. 1924. The Family Liotiidae, Iredale, in the New Zealand Tertiary: Part 1—The Genus Brookula. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol 55, 1924, pp. 526–531.
• Finlay H. J. & McDowall F. H. 1924. Preliminary Note on the Clifden Beds. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 55, pp. 534–538.
• Finlay H. J. 1924. Two New Species of Magadina. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 55, 1924,
• Finlay H. J. 1924. Some necessary changes in Names of New Zealand Mollusca. Proc. Mal. Soc. (Lond.), vol. 16, pt. 2, pp. 99–107.
• Finlay H. J. 1924. List of Recorded Relationships between Australian and New Zealand Mollusca. Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 16, pp. 332–343.

1925

• Finlay H. J. 1925 Some Modern Conceptions Applied to the Study of the Caenozoic Mollusca of New Zealand. Verbeek Mem. Birthday Vol., pp. 161–172.

1926

• Finlay H. J. 1926 New Shells from New Zealand Tertiary Beds: Part 2. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 56, 1926, pp. 227–258.
• Finlay H. J. 1926 On Iredalina, new genus: a Volute without plaits. Proc. Mal. Soc. (Lond.), vol. 17, pt. 1, pp. 59–62.

1927

• Finlay H. J. 1927. Additions to the Recent Molluscan Fauna of New Zealand.—No. 2. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 57, 1927, pp. 485–487
• Finlay H. J. (19 January) 1927. New Specific Names for Austral Mollusca. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 57, 1927, pp. 488–533.
• Finlay H. J. (23 December) 1927. A Further Commentary on New Zealand Molluscan Systematics. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 57, 1927, 320-485.

1928

• Finlay H. J. 1928. The Recent Mollusca of the Chatham Islands. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 59, 1928, pp. 232–286

1930

• Finlay H. J. (23 August) 1930. Additions to the Recent Molluscan Fauna of New Zealand. No. 3. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 61, 222-247. (PDF)
• Finlay H. J. 1930. Invalid Molluscan Names. No. 1. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 61, 1930
• Finlay H. J. 1930. New Shells from New Zealand Tertiary Beds. Part 3. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 61, 1930, pp. 49–84
• Finlay H. J. 1930. Notes on Recent Papers dealing with the Mollusca of New Zealand. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 61, 1930, pp. 248–258
• Finlay H. J. 1930. Revision of the New Zealand. Shells Referred to Fusinus. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 61, 1930

1931

• Finlay H. J. 1931–1932. On Turbo postulatus Bartrum: Does it indicate a Pliocene Connection with Australia? Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 62, 1931–32
• Finlay H. J. 1931–1932. On Austrosassia, Austroharpa, and Austrolithes, New Genera; with some Remarks on the Gasteropod Protoconch. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 62, 1931–32, pp. 7–19
• Finlay H. J. 1931–1932. On the Occurrence of Strebloceras in New Zealand. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 62, 1931–32
• Finlay H. J. & Laws C. R. (23 May) 1931. A Second Species of Planorbis from New Zealand. Trans. N.Z. Inst. Volume 62, 1931–32. 23-25.

1938

• Finlay H. J. 1938–1939. New Zealand Foraminifera: Key Species in Stratigraphy—No. 1. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 68, 1938–39,
• Finlay H. J. 1938–1939. New Zealand Foraminifera: The Occurrence of Rzehakina, Hantkenina, Rotaliatina, and Zeauvigerina. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 68, 1938–39

1940

• Finlay H. J. 1940. New Zealand Foraminifera: Key Species in Stratigraphy. No. 2. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 69, 1940
• Finlay H. J. & Marwick J. 1940. The Divisions of the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary in New Zealand. Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z., vol. 70, pp. 77–135.

1946

• Finlay H. J. 1946–1947. The Microfaunas of the Oxford Chalk and Eyre River Beds. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 76, 1946–47,
• Finlay H. J. 1946–1947. The Foraminiferal Evidence for Tertiary Trans-Tasman Correlation. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 76, 1946–47

1947

• Finlay H. J. & Marwick J. 1947. New Divisions of the New Zealand Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary. N.Z. Journ. Sci. Tech., vol. 28, (sec. B), pp. 230–236.

1950

• Benson W. N. & Finlay H. J. 1950. A Post-Tertiary Micro-Fauna in a Concretion Containing Cancer novae-zealandiae. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 78, 1950, 269-270.

• Scott, G. H. Finlay, Harold John 1901 – 1951. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007

• Rehder H. A. (July) 1952. Harold John Finlay, 1901–1951. The Nautilus 66(1): 30-31.
• Hornbrook N. de B. (July) 1951. The Micropaleontologist. volume 5, number 3.
• Finlay, A. M. (July) 1981. H. J. Finlay, 1901—1951. Geological Society of New Zealand. Newsletter No 53 (July 1981): 29—30
• Hornbrook, N. de B. (December) 1971. Finlay & Marwick. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 14, No 4 (Dec. 1971): 640—654
• Hornbrook, N. de B. 1975. Harold J. Finlay (1901–1951). New Zealand's Nature Heritage 59 (1975): facing 1656

• https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/name-207944.html