Paul Neergaard was a recruiting officer for the Native Labour Association, Ltd., which supplied labourers for the gold mines on the Witwatersrand. He recruited mainly in southern Mozambique between 1907 and 1927. By 1904 he was stationed in southern Mozambique, where friction arose between him and the governor of the Inhambe district. Around 1907 he assisted Captain C.H.B. Grant* in collecting birds, during the latter's collecting expedition to southern Africa for the British Museum (Natural History). Neergaard's Sunbird, Cinnyris neergaardi, was named after him by Grant in 1908.

Neergaard subsequently continued his recruiting activities in South Africa and was stationed in Middelburg (Mpumalanga) and Soekmekaar (Limpopo Province). He was also associated with a rest camp near the Soutpansberg in Limpopo Province for labourers recruited in Mozambique. During 1928 he travelled widely in Nyasaland (now Malawi) to recruit extra labour. In his later years he was a farmer near Middelburg and at his death was survived by a daughter.

List of sources:

Clinning, C. Southern African bird names explained. Johannesburg: Southern African Ornithological Society, 1989.

FamilySearch: Paul Neergaard. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSS5-JGNX?view=index&personArk=/ark:/61903/1:1:QPWX-8JK8&action=view&cc=2520237&lang=en&groupId=M967-D55

Hocky, P.A.R. et al (eds). Roberts birds of southern Africa, 7th ed. Cape Town: John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, 2005.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Neergaard, P.

Neergaard. In Beolens, B., Watkins, M. & Grayson, M. The eponym dictionary of birds. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-05-29 10:47:28