(1909– ).

Geologist.

A new biography of Wellman, Harold William appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Harold William Wellman was born on 25 March 1909 at Devonport, England, and educated at Victoria University of Wellington where he took his M.Sc. (1941) and D.Sc. (1956). He joined the permanent staff of Geological Survey in 1938 and was Senior Geologist at Greymouth for some years before becoming Principal Scientific Officer in Wellington. In 1958 he was appointed senior lecturer in the Geology Department of Victoria University and associate professor in 1963. He has been the recipient of several honours in the scientific world. These include the F.R.S.N.Z. (1954); the Hector Memorial Medal and Prize (1957); and the McKay Hammer Award (1959), the latter being bestowed by the Geological Society of New Zealand for his study of cretaceous rocks. Whilst on the staff of the Geological Survey he has published articles on such subjects as coal metamorphism, the regional geology of Nelson and Westland, the geological structure of New Zealand with particular reference to the Alpine Fault, Quaternary Tectonics of New Zealand, and the distribution and subdivision of the New Zealand cretaceous rocks. The concepts developed in the last three fields have been widely accepted. More recently his publications have dealt with Holocene stratigraphy and aspects of Antarctic geology.