English-born botanist who spent the greater part of his career in Papua New Guinea. John Womersley came to Australia with his family in 1930, settling in Adelaide, and went on to graduate from the University of Adelaide. He trained as a teacher at the South Australian Teachers' College, but was employed as a teacher for only 18 months before joining the Division of Soils at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). In 1946 he was offered and accepted a position in Papua New Guinea as Forest Botanist at Lae. Womersley went on to become Assistant Director of the Division of Botany in the Papua New Guinea Department of Forests, where he built up the National Herbarium to contain some 250,000 specimen collections. In addition he developed the National Botanic Garden at Lae, of which he was appointed director. At home he lived with his wife, Mary, and their five children.
Womersley was an intrepid plant collector in Papua New Guinea, exploring much of the island on foot, including the western part (known as Dutch New Guinea before 1962). He also made trips to the Solomon Islands and frequently visited neighbouring countries (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand), forging close ties with botanists there. He was an enthusiast of Rhododendrons, Begonias, Hoya and Tecomanthe and knew where they could be found wild in the forest as well as how to cultivate them. He published numerous books and papers, including major contributions to the Encyclopaedia of Papua New Guinea, and edited Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea.
A Board Member of the National Museum, Councillor and President of the Papua New Guinea Scientific Society and a member of Lae Town Council, Womersley was actively involved in national science and politics in Papua New Guinea. After retiring to Adelaide in 1975 he worked as a consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organisation and other authorities. P&O cruise ships engaged him and his wife as knowledgeable lecturers and Womersley organised various tours to Papua New Guinea for horticultural and botanical societies. In his later years he continued with taxonomic work on Vireya Rhododendrons (with Dr. Bob Withers) and helped with the publication of the first two editions of a computerised census of the South Australian flora. More than 20 plant species from Papua New Guinea are named in his honour, including Croton womersleyi Airy Shaw and Nothofagua womersleyi Steenis.
Sources:
B. Morley, 1985, Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 45
M.J. van Steenis Kruseman, "Cyclopedia of Collectors", Flora Malesiana, online edn:
http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/FMCollectors/W/WomersleyJS.htm, accessed 10 November 2010.
