Natural history collector in Java and the East Indies. Ernestine Walsh was born at Geneva, Switzerland and married in Australia. The couple settled in West Java at Soekaboemi in 1911, but after being widowed two years later, Walsh began to devote her time to collecting and studying insects. This interest provided her with an income through the sale of specimens and she employed Indonesian collectors to help her. Walsh went on to travel across Timor (1928-1929), south Sumatra and Borneo (1937) collecting both insects and plants. In Borneo she was accompanied by the Indonesian collector O. Aët. She did not return to Europe until 1958, when she settled in Switzerland once more. She died in Geneva in 1973.

Sources:
M.J. van Steenis Kruseman, "Cyclopedia of Collectors", Flora Malesiana, online edn:
http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/FMCollectors/W/WalshHeldME.htm, accessed 15 November 2010.