Harry Skinner (ethnologist)

Henry Devenish Skinner CBE DCM (18 December 1886 – 9 February 1978), known as Harry Skinner or H.D. Skinner, was a notable New Zealand soldier, ethnologist, university lecturer, museum curator and director, and librarian. The son of William Skinner, he was born in New Plymouth in 1886.[1]

H.D. Skinner Annex of Otago Museum

Skinner received information on Māori house types and construction methods from Mere Harper.[2]

In the 1956 New Year Honours, Skinner was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services as director of Otago Museum and lecturer in anthropology at the University of Otago.[3]

The H.D. Skinner Annex of the Otago Museum, formerly the Dunedin North Post Office, was opened in August 2013, and named in honour of Skinner.[4][5] During his time at the museum, Skinner was responsible for adding more than 65,000 objects to the humanities collections, including purchasing a piece of HMS Bounty from one of Fletcher Christian's direct descendants.[6][7]

Skinner was one of 24,000 Anzac soldiers wounded at Gallipoli. In 2015, the Otago Museum opened the exhibition "Surviving Chunuk Bair: H. D. Skinner at Gallipoli'' using objects loaned by the Skinner family, including a sewing kit, medals, letters and photographs.[8]