Charles Chilton

Charles Chilton (27 September 1860 – 25 October 1929) was a New Zealand zoologist, the first rector to be appointed in Australasia, and the first person to be awarded a D.Sc. degree in New Zealand.

Biography Chilton was born on 27 September 1860 at Little Marstone, Pencombe, son of Thomas Chilton, (near Leominster, Herefordshire, England) but emigrated with his family to New Zealand in 1862. They settled on a farm at East Eyreton, North Canterbury. He was troubled by his hips from an early age, and had his left leg amputated, using an artificial leg and a crutch thereafter. He surprised the scientific world later that year by describing four species of amphipod and isopod from groundwaters at the family farm in Eyreton. He went on to discover the isopod Phreatoicus typicus in the same location, the first example ever described of the suborder Phreatoicidea,

Chilton gained the first BSc degree from the University of New Zealand in 1887, Chilton was the editor of the subsequent scientific reports resulting from the expedition.

Chilton was instrumental in establishing the Cass Field Station (formerly Canterbury College Mountain Biological Station), the building of which was completed in 1914.

In 1915, Frank Chilton, the couple's only child, a second-year medical student and a lieutenant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, was killed in the Battle of Gallipoli.

Chilton died on 25 October 1929 of a sudden attack of pneumonia, before he could collect his life's work into a single monograph. He had published 130 papers on crustaceans, mostly amphipods, isopods and decapods, from all around the world, but especially from New Zealand, subterranean and sub-Antarctic waters.