[1] He went on to have a lengthy career as a government employed man of science in New Zealand, and during this period he dominated the colony's scientific institutions in a way that no single person has since.

He was born at 11 Danube Street in Stockbridge, Edinburgh[2] the son of Alexander Hector WS and his wife, Margaret Macrostie.

In 1858, when Palliser's expedition was exploring a mountain pass near the continental divide of the Canadian Rockies, one of Hector's packhorses fell into the river.

As it was being pulled from the water, his own horse strayed and, when chasing after it, Hector records, he was kicked in the chest and knocked unconscious.

However, as politely noted by the Palliser scholar Irene Spry, it "embodies Hector's not always accurate reminiscences about the Expedition".

[6]In 1903 during a visit to Canada, Hector said of his mishap in Kicking Horse Pass, "When I regained consciousness, my grave was dug and they were preparing to put me in it.

"[4] Following his return to Britain after the Palliser expedition, Hector again secured a paid scientific position with Roderick Murchison's and Joseph Hooker's help.

He also assembled a staff of half a dozen men to assist with such tasks as fossil collecting, chemical analysis, and botanical and zoological taxonomy.

Some of these men, such as William Skey (mineral analyst), Richard Gore (clerk), and John Buchanan (botanical artist and draftsman), stayed with him for many years.

As the chief government-employed scientist, Hector gave politicians advice on questions as diverse as exporting wool to Japan and improving fibre production from New Zealand flax.

[11] At the end of his career he was criticised for failing to acquire Māori artefacts for the Colonial Museum and in 1891 for not adequately defending his departments from the new Liberal Government's funding cuts.

In 1902, for example, the ethnographer Elsdon Best wrote to Augustus Hamilton, the future director of the Colonial Museum, to state that Hector should be forced from office and that they should put a live man in his place.

[20] They had nine children, six boys and three girls: Barclay (1869–1964), Charles Monro (1871–1935), Constance Margart (1873–1949), David Carmichael (1874-1875), Douglas (1877–1903), Philip Landale (1878–1879), Lyell (1882–1908), Georgina (1884–1979) and Marjory (1886–1948).