Biography

New Zealand (English-born) agricultural chemist and naturalist. Bernard Aston was born in Beckenham, Kent, his father a stockbroker. The family moved to New Zealand while Bernard Aston was young and settled at Christchurch. He studied chemistry and botany at Dunedin Technical Classes Association and went on to attend the University of Otago, though he never formally enrolled. The chemistry professor James Gow Black helped him obtain work at the Milburn Lime and Cement Company and as an analyst at the university, after which he was appointed chemist to the Department of Agriculture in Wellington in 1899. In this role Aston developed the department's analytical services, recruited staff and augmented the laboratory facilities at Wellington, as well as participating in study trips to Britain, Canada, the U.S.A. and Australia in 1903. In 1908 he set up the district's first testing laboratory for export butter at New Plymouth.

Aston's practical work at the department focused on plant and animal nutrition in relation to soil conditions, and he published the findings of his investigations in the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture. One of his best known studies attempted to uncover the cause of 'bush sickness' affecting animals in the volcanic central North Island in the early 20th century, whereby animals grazing newly established pasture on pumice land gradually wasted away and died. With J.A. Gilruth and C.J. Reakes, he deduced that the condition was due to a mineral deficiency, namely of iron (though it turned out to by lack of cobalt). Limonite salt-licks were effectively used from the 1930s as a remedy.

All the while, Aston kept up a keen interest in botany, studying the distribution of native plants. He especially concentrated on the mountain ranges of the central North Island and the flora of the Tararua and Ruahine ranges, and Mt. Tarawera. In addition, he undertook ecological surveys of Campbell Island and the Auckland Islands. An enthusiastic 'tramper', he became the first vice president of the Tararua Tramping Club in 1919, with his friend W.H. Field as president. In the same year he was one of the original fellows elected to the New Zealand Institute, of which he was president in 1926-1928. He was also a fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and a council member for the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, and was awarded the Hector Memorial Medal and Prize in 1925 for his work in chemistry. He was made CBE in 1948, eight years after he retired from the Department of Agriculture. Muehlenbeckia astonii Petrie is named after him.

Sources:
N.M. Adams, 1980, "The botanical excursions of B.C. Aston", Tuatara, 24: 49-58
R.W. Bailey, 2007, "Aston, Bernard Cracroft 1871-1951", Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/ , accessed 25 May 2010
R.E.R.G., 1952, "Bernard Cracroft Aston, CBE, FRSNZ, FRIC.", Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 80: 113-117.

Biography

New Zealand (English-born) agricultural chemist and naturalist. Bernard Aston was born in Beckenham, Kent, his father a stockbroker. The family moved to New Zealand while Bernard Aston was young and settled at Christchurch. He studied chemistry and botany at Dunedin Technical Classes Association and went on to attend the University of Otago, though he never formally enrolled. The chemistry professor James Gow Black helped him obtain work at the Milburn Lime and Cement Company and as an analyst at the university, after which he was appointed chemist to the Department of Agriculture in Wellington in 1899. In this role Aston developed the department's analytical services, recruited staff and augmented the laboratory facilities at Wellington, as well as participating in study trips to Britain, Canada, the U.S.A. and Australia in 1903. In 1908 he set up the district's first testing laboratory for export butter at New Plymouth.

Aston's practical work at the department focused on plant and animal nutrition in relation to soil conditions, and he published the findings of his investigations in the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture. One of his best known studies attempted to uncover the cause of 'bush sickness' affecting animals in the volcanic central North Island in the early 20th century, whereby animals grazing newly established pasture on pumice land gradually wasted away and died. With J.A. Gilruth and C.J. Reakes, he deduced that the condition was due to a mineral deficiency, namely of iron (though it turned out to by lack of cobalt). Limonite salt-licks were effectively used from the 1930s as a remedy.

All the while, Aston kept up a keen interest in botany, studying the distribution of native plants. He especially concentrated on the mountain ranges of the central North Island and the flora of the Tararua and Ruahine ranges, and Mt. Tarawera. In addition, he undertook ecological surveys of Campbell Island and the Auckland Islands. An enthusiastic 'tramper', he became the first vice president of the Tararua Tramping Club in 1919, with his friend W.H. Field as president. In the same year he was one of the original fellows elected to the New Zealand Institute, of which he was president in 1926-1928. He was also a fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and a council member for the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, and was awarded the Hector Memorial Medal and Prize in 1925 for his work in chemistry. He was made CBE in 1948, eight years after he retired from the Department of Agriculture. Muehlenbeckia astonii Petrie is named after him.

Sources:
N.M. Adams, 1980, "The botanical excursions of B.C. Aston", Tuatara, 24: 49-58
R.W. Bailey, 2007, "Aston, Bernard Cracroft 1871-1951", Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/ , accessed 25 May 2010
R.E.R.G., 1952, "Bernard Cracroft Aston, CBE, FRSNZ, FRIC.", Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 80: 113-117.