C H A R L E S A L E X A N D E R FLEMING, KBE, FRS, FRSNZ, D.Sc.
- A Tribute by John Morton
Sir Charles Fleming, naturalist and palaeontologist, died at Waikanae, in
August 1987. In him New Zealand natural science lost its most distinguished
figure; and Field Club one of the most versatile members in its long history.
Born in Auckland in 1916, Charles Fleming gained his early love of natural
history as a member of King's College field club. As a youngster one of his
great opportunities was to go down to the Wanganui coasts and dig fossils with
his boyhood mentor A.W.B. Powell. In World War II he was to serve as a coast
watcher in the Auckland Islands. So grew his intimate acquaintance with the
birds of the southern ocean, and the subject matter of his master's thesis at
Auckland on the prions or dove petrels Pachyptila. Fleming joined New Zealand
Geological Survey in 1940, rising to be its chief palaeontologist in 1952.
Charles Fleming's prime research was then to centre upon N.Z.'s stratigraphy
and fossil Mollusca. But he was equally an expert in recent molluscan groups.
His interest in N.Z.'s place in the southern oceans led in 1978 to his important
synoptic account of our Tertiary biogeography. As if this were not enough,
he had already immersed himself in modern bird systematics and migrations,
Field Club, Great Barrier Island, 1938. Back row, L to R: Graham Reid, Ted Collins, Bill Stride,
Frank Newhook, Eric Godley, Dick Dell, Shepherd Bros, ?, Charles Fleming. Middle row, L
to R: Daintry Walker, Kath Elliot, Joan Dingley, Joyce Bell, Brenda Bishop, Ruth Mason, Jean
Livingston, Dr Briggs with Honi. Front row, L to R: Nita Steele, Margaret Elliot, Betty
Molesworth, June Hillary, Peggy Chambers, Mary Tewsley.
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Field Club Fiftieth Anniversary Reunion, Motutapu Island, 1972. Group photo 1922-1941 members. Back row, L to R: Eric Godley, Bob Briggs, Charles Fleming. Front row, L to R: Jean
Livingston, Peg Fleming (nee Chambers), Nita Davis (nee Steele).
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particularly of the robin family, Petroicidae. Some of his latest work was to
be on insects, in the taxonomy and song of the cicadas. He was moreover a
forest conservationist to the last; and was in the front line of the great battles
for the 'Gondwanaland forests' of Puerora and Whirinaki.
Many honours were to come his way, including the Hutton and Hector Medals
of the Royal Society of N Z of which he became President 1962-4. He was also
president of the N Z Ornithological Society (1948-9) and of the N Z Federation
of Recorded Music Societies (1957-9). He was knighted (KBE), but only after
the greater honour he had already received, the Fellowship of the Royal Society of London in 1967.
He never lost his versatility of interests. Until the end his was still the enthusiasm of a young man, wherever the far-flung pursuit of evolutionary science
led him. He played his distinguished part in 'administering', and in being a
leader of science. He wrote widely on the history of New Zealand scientists,
with a history of the Royal Society published only this year, and generously
presented the portraits of former Presidents to the N . Z . Royal Society.
But the official hierarchy and its close corridors were never his real satisfaction. His was the unfolding joy of science in the field, and particularly the
links of today with the past. He was in a fine sense a Darwinian, and would
have thought of himself as a responsible inheritor from the past. Just as Darwin had in his day encouraged NZ's T.F. Cheeseman, who in turn brought forward A.W.B. Powell who was himself to help Fleming, so it was that he was
to bring on others. Exacting in standards, sometimes quizzical or critical, he
never forgot the impulse of friendship, most of all in help to younger scientists.
In his generation, Charles Fleming shared some advantages less understood
by young natural scientists today. Fifty years ago, it was not the universities,
but the museums and their small but often distinguished staff, who were our
educators and inspirers, in 'systems and systematics', from geomorphology, and
stratigraphy, to plant succession and latterly shore zonation.
Charles Fleming knew about all of these. He never became portentous, and
life can never have been dull for him. More than a 'doyen' of New Zealand's
natural scientists, he was looked on by us as an elder brother. When I was doing my own masterate, Prof 'Barney' McGregor used to bring out Charles Fleming's prion thesis and give us glimpses of its Plates, a lure to excellence, as it
were. That is the kind of regard we held him in.
A n d - for his legacy to the future - his special gift was to have seen the earth
sciences and the life sciences whole, to have understood their unity, and to have
helped younger scientists to realise their essential wonder.
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