McCulloch, Allan R. (Allan Riverstone), 1885-1925

Allan Riverstone McCulloch, icthyologist and field naturalist, was born in Concord, Sydney on 20 June 1885. At the age of 13 he began working as an unpaid assistant to E R Waite at the Australian Museum, who encouraged him in the study of zoology. In 1906 McCulloch was appointed assistant in charge of vertebrates at the museum, and soon afterwards began to specialize in the study of Australian fishes and marine animals. His first paper appeared in the "Records of the Australian Museum" in 1906, and until his death papers by him were published every year in that or some other scientific journal.

Though never of robust physique McCulloch was a great worker, and made several trips to the Great Barrier Reef and various Pacific islands, obtaining fresh information about his work. In 1922 he made an adventurous journey through Papua with Captain Frank Hurley. McCulloch's unremitting work undermined his health, which broke down badly in 1923. He was found dead in his room at the Colonial Hotel, Honolulu on 1 September 1925, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He had been on 12 months' leave in the hope that rest and change might benefit him.

By his premature death, a scientific worker of unusual distinction was lost, who held the first place in his subject in Australia. He was also an excellent organizer and trainer of younger members of the staff of the Australian museum. His "Check List of Fishes and Fish-like Animals of New South Wales" was published by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales in 1922, and nearly five years after his death, "A Check List of the Fishes Recorded from Australia," prepared from McCulloch's materials, and edited by Gilbert P. Whitley, was published as "Memoir V" of the Australian museum of Sydney. His ashes were interred beneath a monument to his memory on Flagstaff Hill on Lord Howe Island, a place he held in great affection. Biographical history compiled with the assistance of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, v. 10, 1986.

From the description of 5535 Allan Riverstone McCulloch Journal, 1918. (Libraries Australia). WorldCat record id: 755772649