W. H. Oliver
| W. H. Oliver | |
|---|---|
| Born |
14 May 1925 Feilding, New Zealand |
| Died | 16 September 2015 (aged 90) Wellington |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Other names | Bill Oliver |
| Occupation | historian, poet, biographer |
William Hosking Oliver CBE (14 May 1925 – 16 September 2015), commonly known as W. H. Oliver but also known as Bill Oliver, was an eminent New Zealand historian and a poet. From 1983, Oliver led the development of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.
Oliver was born in Feilding in 1925 to Ethel Amelia Oliver and her husband, William Henry Oliver, both Cornish immigrants. His father was a member of the Labour Party and stood in the Oroua electorate in the 1935 election, and the Manawatu electorate in 1943.
During his youth, the family moved to Dannevirke, where he received his schooling at Dannevirke High School. Upon leaving school at 18, he moved to Wellington where he studied at Victoria University of Wellington (MA), followed by three years of lecturing at that institution. He married Dorothy Nielsen, whom he had met at a Christian conference in Christchurch, and had five sons and one daughter with her.
In 1951, the Olivers moved to the United Kingdom, where he completed a PhD at the University of Oxford in 1953. They returned to New Zealand and he lectured at University of Canterbury and Victoria, before becoming inaugural professor of history at Massey University in 1965, where he later served as Dean of Humanities. He was made emeritus professor on leaving Massey in 1983 to become general editor of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (DNZB). He wrote extensively on New Zealand history and published several volumes of poetry. In the 1990 New Year Honours he was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal, and he received a D. Litt (Hon) from Victoria University of Wellington in recognition of his services to history. In 2008 he was honoured in the Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement in the non-fiction genre.
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