Avice Hill

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Avice Hill (née Hamilton, 1906–2001) was a New Zealand entomologist and herb grower from Christchurch. She earned a BSc in 1931 and an MSc in 1932 at Canterbury University College, studying the New Zealand dobsonfly Archichauliodes diversus. Hill worked in the Entomology Section of the Plant Research Bureau (DSIR) in Palmerston North, then moved to the Cawthron Institute in Nelson, where she researched insects that damaged cocksfoot crops, including the cocksfoot stem-borer and midges, presenting her work to the Royal Society of New Zealand.

In the 1950s she inherited family property on Memorial Avenue in Christchurch. After a visit to Sissinghurst Castle in England with her husband Frank, she started a herb nursery and became a local expert, planting about 150 varieties of herbs and flowering plants. She donated the property to the Christchurch City Council, creating the Avice Hill Community Reserve and Arts and Crafts Centre. With Peggy Fitts and another person, she helped form the Canterbury Herb Society in 1968; the group still maintains the herb collection at 395 Memorial Avenue. A lavender variety, Lavandula angustifolia "Avice Hill," is named for her. She received the Christchurch Civic Award in 1997 for her work in the arts and crafts community, and in 2017 she was named among the Royal Society of New Zealand's "150 women in 150 words."