Walter Samuel Millard (1864–1952) was a British

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

who was honorary secretary of the

Bombay Natural History Society The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publ ...

, editor of the '' Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'' from 1906 to 1920, co-author (with Ethelbert Blatter) of the classic, ''Some Beautiful Indian Trees'', and the driving force behind the Mammal Survey of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

conducted by the society between 1911 and 1923.

Early life

Millard, the seventh son of Rev. J.H. Millard, was born in

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by John, King of England, King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver C ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1864. He came out to

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

at age 20 to assist in the wine business of Herbert (Musgrave) Phipson, then Honorary Secretary of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and the editor of its journal. Joining the Society in 1893, he was made assistant editor of the Journal. Upon Phipson's retirement in 1906, Millard became editor and remained so until 1920. Millard was married to a woman named Sybilla, who had a species of

flying squirrel Flying squirrels (scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini) are a tribe (biology), tribe of 50 species of squirrels in the family (biology), family Squirrel, Sciuridae. Despite their name, they are not in fact capable of full flight i ...

named after her, the Chindwin giant flying squirrel, ''Petaurista sybilla''.

Journal editor and gardening

During the years of Phipson's editorship, the ''Journal of BNHS'' had emerged as the premier natural history journal in Asia. Although other excellent Asian journals in the field were being published during Millard's editorial tenure, the ''Journal of BNHS'' remained the only one with both scholarly ''and'' general interest articles. During this time the Society began to publish serial articles from the ''Journal'' in book form. One of the best received such books was Stuart Baker'sbr>''Indian Ducks and their Allies''
(1908). Millard's main

avocation An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces w ...

was gardening, especially the cultivation of flowering trees. He is credited with introducing the Burmese '' Cassia renigera'', the ''

Pterocarpus indicus ''Pterocarpus indicus'' (commonly known as Amboyna wood, Malay padauk, Papua New Guinea rosewood, Philippine mahogany, Andaman redwood, Burmese rosewood, narra (from Tagalog) and asana in the Philippines, angsana, or Pashu padauk) is a species ...

'', and the South American '' Gliricidia maculata'' to the city of Bombay. Upon his suggestion, Fr. Ethelbert Blatter, SJ, Principal and Professor of Botany at St Xavier's College, Bombay, wrote the series ''Palms of India'' for the ''Journal''. A few years later Blatter and Millard coauthored the series ''Some Beautiful Indian Trees'', resulting in a book of the same name, which has since become a classic, and remains in print. Salim Ali credited his initiation into ornithology as a young boy to Millard, who helped identify a

yellow-throated sparrow The yellow-throated sparrow or chestnut-shouldered petronia (''Gymnoris xanthocollis'') is a species of sparrow found in southern Asia. It is a species mostly of the dry savannah. They forage on the ground for grain and for berries in bushes. ...

he had shot.Ali, S. (1985). ''The fall of a sparrow''. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Mammal survey

R. C. Wroughton, who, after retiring from the

Indian Forest Service The Indian Forest Service (IFS) is the premier forest service of India. .The IFS is one of the three All India Services along with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) & the Indian Police Service (IPS). It was constituted in the year 1966 un ...

, was studying

mammals A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle e ...

at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, began to correspond with Millard and urged him to employ a ''collector'' (and

taxidermist Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body by mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the process ...

) for collecting small mammals for the Society. In 1910, C. A. Crump who had just arrived in Bombay offered his services as collector. Calling an urgent meeting of the Society, Millard helped build consensus for both employing Crump and launching a fund drive for a mammal survey. Within a year, enough funds had been raised to hire four full-time collectors, and with that the ''Mammal Survey'' began. Lasting 12 years, the survey helped build collections that became the basis for R.I. Pocock's two volumes, ''Mammalia'', in the series''

The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma ''The Fauna of British India'' (short title) with long titles including ''The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma'', and ''The Fauna of British India Including the Remainder of the Oriental Region'' is a series of scientific books t ...

''. Both the commencement and the success of the survey depended largely on Millard's fund-raising and organizational work; this, he undertook in addition to his work as editor of the ''Journal'' and as manager of his employer's wine business, Messrs. Phipson and Co. Millard was an early conservationist. Through his efforts, a "close time" was established for the hunting of certain birds, and other animals were given extra protection. After he left India in 1920, Millard spent many years in retirement, managing the Bombay Natural History Society's business in London. Millard died on 21 March 1952.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Millard, Walter Samuel Naturalists from British India 1864 births 1952 deaths British people in colonial India Members of the Bombay Natural History Society