William E. Ivey

Founding Director of the School of Agriculture (1878-1892), F.I.C., F.C.S.

William Edward Ivey was appointed as 'Manager' of the Lincoln School of Agriculture in 1878. He was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia on 26 August 1838 and educated in England including the course in agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester.

He set about the task of preparing the School of Agriculture for occupation and the farm for operation and development. He was to be responsible for the welfare of the students, as well as for their education. His doctrine he promulgated urged that agricultural education must give both practical and scientific training. Ivey set the pattern for training young farmers at Lincoln and conducted the first experiments with superphosphate in New Zealand. Phosphate for stimulating the growth of nitrogen-synthesising clover has proved to be the basis of our modern system of grassland farming. Unfortunately hard headed colonial pragmatism outsted the idealism of the new settlers as time went on so that Ivey found it very difficult to impress his committee that agricultural training had much to offer. Mr Ivey died in 1892 after his 14 years as Director and was buried in the Springston Cemetery. He was aged 54. Source: Ivey Hall Lincoln College, McArthur, A. T. G. & Fenwick, J. E. (1978), Looking at Lincoln, Lincoln College.

Charles Wood, the second student to be enrolled in 1880, recalled: "Ivey was a very capable man when one considers how he was handicapped with insufficient finance, which in turn meant under-staffing and an inadequate supply of implements. He was popular with everybody, for although he was hard, he was always just, and he had ... enough temper to keep everyone up to the mark." (C.A.C. Magazine, No. 62, 1937).

Manager and Director of the School of Agriculture (1878-1892).