Harry Skinner (ethnologist)

Harry Skinner CBE DCM
Born	Henry Devenish Skinner (1886-12-18)18 December 1886 New Plymouth, New Zealand
Died	Dunedin, New Zealand
Fields	Anthropology; ethnology
Institutions	Otago Museum University of Otago Hocken Library
Notable awards	Parker Memorial Prize Percy Smith Prize in Anthropology (1925) Hector Memorial Medal and Prize (1926) Andre Medal (1936) Honorary LittD Otago (1962)
Relatives	William Skinner (father)

File:Skinner annex.jpg

H.D. Skinner Annex of Otago Museum

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.

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

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.

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. 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.

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.