MASTERS, GEORGE (1837-1912), entomologist, was born in July 1837 in Maidstone, Kent, England, son of George Masters, gardener, and his wife Matilda, née Terry. He became a gardener and about 1856 migrated to Melbourne. Interested in natural history, he was employed by Dr Godfrey Howitt for some two years. He collected insects in Tasmania and sold them to W. J. Macleay. By 1860 he was a gardener at Shepherd's Darling Nursery in Sydney. Recommended by Gerard Krefft, Masters was sent by Macleay to Queensland to collect insects for him. In 1863-66 he exhibited thousands of insects before the new Entomological Society of New South Wales.

On 2 June 1864 Masters was appointed assistant curator and collector to the Australian Museum at a salary of £200, on condition that he sold his private collection and made no new one, an agreement he ignored. In the 1860s he travelled extensively in ...

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Source:

Australian Dictionary of Biography