Harold Finlay

Harold John Finlay was born in India, son of Baptist missionaries from New Zealand. He graduated from Otago University in 1921 as the first Edmond chemistry research fellow, came second in physics, and also won a prize for poetry. He became interested in palaeontology, which became his life’s work in spite of contracting polio at age four. However there wasn’t a living to be made in fossils until his 1937 appointment as micropalaeontologist with the Geographical Survey. The same year he married Jean Gilles, and they had two daughters. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and received the Hector Memorial Medal and Prize in 1941. Finlay was always interested in music, running music appreciation courses for Knox College in Dunedin. The founding of the National Orchestra in 1946 restarted his interest in composing and several of his pieces were performed by the young orchestra. He also wrote chamber music. He died suddenly in 1951.