Robert Grant was born in Edinburgh on 11 November 1793. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and at the University of Edinburgh, graduating M.D. in 1814. From 1815 to 1820 Grant studied medicine and natural history in Paris and at many continental universities. He returned to Edinburgh in 1820 and devoted himself to natural history. In 1824 he gave lectures on comparative anatomy of the invertebrate for his friend Dr John Barclay, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He believed in the transformation of species and the Darwinian theory of natural selection. Charles Darwin was his intimate companion in study. Grant wrote numerous original papers during this period. In June 1827 he was elected Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Zoology at University College London and became absorbed in teaching for the next 46 years. He also lectured at other institutions. In 1836 he became a fellow of the Royal Society. Grant died on 23 August 1874 at the age of 80.
Clifford was born in 1845. He was educated at Exeter, at King's College London and at Trinity College Cambridge. He was appointed Professor of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics at University College London in 1871, a post he held till 1879. A mathematician, Clifford was also a classical scholar and read French, German, Spanish and modern Greek fluently. However, he drove himself relentlessly and worked long hours. Signs of pulmonary disease appeared in 1876 and he died in 1879 at the age of 33.
Born at Higher Broughton, near Salford, Lancashire, only son of the two children of David Watson, chemist, metallurgist, and pioneer of the electrolytic refining of copper, and his wife Mary, daughter of Samuel Seares, a London stockbroker, 1886; educated privately and at Manchester Grammar School; entered the University of Manchester, 1904; intended a career in chemistry and industry, but in fact specialised in geology, and while an undergraduate began to study preserved plants from Coal Measures deposits, with Marie Stopes producing a seminal paper on coal balls in Philosophical Transactions, vol 200B, 1907; graduated with first class honours in geology, 1907; produced other papers on palaeobotany, 1907-1908; Beyer fellow at the University of Manchester, 1908; MSc; demonstrator, 1909; Watson's sister Constance died tragically in her second year at Somerville College Oxford, 1909; Watson became interested in fossil reptiles and other vertebrates, visited many fossil localities in Britain, and worked intensively in the British Museum (Natural History) (BMNH), 1908-1911; became interested in the BMNH collection of fossil reptiles from the Karoo (Karroo) of South Africa, and to further his knowledge collected extensively there, met the palaeontologist Robert Broom, and set up a subdivision of the Beaufort Series into biostratigraphical zones, 1911; invited by James P Hill to be honorary lecturer in vertebrate palaeontology at University College London, 1911; Lecturer in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University College London, 1912-1921; collected fossils in Australia, 1914; wrote an account of the embryological development of the skull of the platypus; returned through North America, making useful collections in Texas, 1915; returned to Britain and took a technical commission as lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 1916-1918; married Katharine Margarite Parker, 1917; transferred to the Royal Air Force as a captain, working on airship and balloon fabrics, 1918; after World War One, conducted research at Newcastle upon Tyne on coal measure amphibia and fish; returned to University College London, 1920; succeeded Hill as Jodrell Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, 1921; developed the Zoology department at University College London; elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1922; Croonian lecturer, Royal Society, 1924; Romanes lecturer at Oxford, 1928; Rainer Medal, 1928; Honorary DSc, Cape Town, 1929; member of the Agricultural Research Council, 1931-1942; Lyell medal, Geological Society of London, 1935; Silliman lecturer, Yale University, 1937; in the USA as acting secretary of the Agricultural Research Council, 1939; returned to supervise the evacuation of the department to Bangor; became Secretary of the Scientific Subcommittee of the Food Policy Committee of the War Cabinet, 1940; Thompson Medal, National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 1941; Darwin medal, Royal Society, 1942; Honorary LLD, Aberdeen, 1943; Honorary DSc, Manchester, 1943; returned to University College in Bangor and, when the war-damaged department was made habitable, in London; Trustee of the British Museum, 1946-1963; travelled abroad, including the USSR, South Africa, and Ceylon; honorary fellow of University College London, 1948; Honorary DSc, Reading and Wales, 1948; Honorary DSc, Witwatersrand, 1949; Linnean medal, Linnean Society, 1949; retired from his chair and became Emeritus Professor, 1951; Alexander Agassiz visiting professor at Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, 1952-1953; Darwin Wallace Medal, Linnean Society, 1958; recipient of a Festschrift, Studies on Fossil Vertebrates presented to David Meredith Seares Watson, edited by T Stanley Westoll, 1958; continued to have the use of a room at University College London and with his secretary and illustrator since 1928, Joyce Townsend, continued to write papers until his full retirement from scientific research, 1965; Wollaston medal, Geological Society of London, 1965; scientific papers, apart from early and significant work on fossil plants, dealt largely with vertebrate palaeontology, including seminal work on fossil reptiles, based largely on his own collections from South Africa, Texas, and elsewhere; two daughters, Katharine Mary and Janet Vida; died, 1973. See also F R Parrington and T S Westoll's memoir in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol xx (1974), pp 483-504. Publications: Palaeontology and the Evolution of Man ... Romanes Lecture ... 1928 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1928); The Animal Bones from Skara Brae (1931); Science and Government [Earl Grey Memorial Lecture no 24, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1942]; Paleontology and Modern Biology [Mrs Hepsa Ely Silliman Memorial Lectures] (Yale University Press, New Haven, [1951]); The Brachyopid Labyrinthodonts, etc [Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History): Geology, vol ii, no 8] (London, 1956); A New Labyrinthodont, Paracyclotosaurus, from the Upper Trias of New South Wales, etc [Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History): Geology, vol iii, no 7] (London, 1958); The Anomodont Skeleton [Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol xxix, pt 3] (London, 1960); many papers on vertebrate palaeontology and connected subjects in Philosophical Transactions, Proceedings of the Zoological Society, Journal of Anatomy, and elsewhere.
Francis Montague was born in London on 31 August 1858. From University College School and University College London, he went to Balliol College Oxford in 1875. He gained a first class degree in Classical Moderations in 1877 and became a prize-fellow of Oriel College in 1881. He then decided to become a barrister. However, in 1891 he returned to Oxford and took up teaching. He lectured on law and was later (1893-1927) Lecturer in Modern History at Oriel. He also took part in the training of candidates for the Indian Civil Service (1892-1920). From 1893 to 1927 he was also Professor of Medieval and Modern History at University College London, of which he had become a fellow in 1880: he travelled between Oxford and London by train to give his lectures. Montague wrote many historical books but he did not have much literary success. In 1930 he was elected an honorary fellow of Oriel. He never married. He died at Oxford on 8 April 1935.
No information could be found at the time of compilation.
George Grote was born in Kent in November 1794, the eldest of eleven children. His father was a banker. At school George had a genuine love of learning which survived the plunge into business at the bank that his father imposed on him at the age of sixteen. He pursued his interest in classical reading, took up German and philosophy, and extended his view of political economy. He was also musical. From 1822, Grote was committed to the project of writing a history of Greece. From 1826 to 1830 he was one of the promoters of the new University College London. Grote became interested in political reform when he visited Paris in 1830. He became known as a man of business and this helped him when he entered politics. He sat through three parliaments till 1841, when he refused to be nominated again. He wished to return to studying and finish his History of Greece which was completed in 1856 and consisted of twelve volumes. In 1843 he left the bank permanently. Grote published other writings during his lifetime, mainly about politics and philosophy. In 1849 he was re-elected to the University College London Council and in 1868 he became president of the University. During his life Grote received many honours: D.D.L. of Oxford in 1853; LL.D. of Cambridge in 1861; fellow of the Royal Society in 1857; and honorary Professor of Ancient History to the Royal Academy in 1859. He also received honours from other countries. He was offered a peerage by Gladstone in 1869 but declined it. He died in June 1871 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Jean Vincent Felix Lamouroux: born, 1779; French naturalist; published various works on natural history; died, 1825.
Thomas Bonney was born in Rugeley on 27 July 1833. He was educated at Uppingham and St John's College Cambridge. In 1857 he was ordained. He was a tutor at St John's College Cambridge from 1868 to 1876. In 1877 he was appointed Yates-Goldsmid Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at University College London, later to become Emeritus Professor of Geology there. He was Whitehall Preacher, 1876-1878. He was President of the Geological Society, 1884-1886. Bonney published books on geology and the history of the planet. He died on 10 December 1923.
W J Sollas was Professor of Geology and Palaeontology at the University of Oxford.
Margaret Murray was born in 1863, the youngest daughter of J C Murray, a businessman of Calcutta, and niece of the Reverend John Murray of Lambourn. She first entered University College London as a student in 1894, and in 1899 became a junior lecturer in Egyptology there. She was Assistant Professor of Egyptology at University College London from 1924 to 1935. She was a member of the Folk Lore Society from 1927 and President from 1953 to 1955. During her life she carried out many excavations in different parts of the world and published many books, mainly about Egypt. She died on 13 November 1963.
Rotton was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1860. From 1869 to 1876 he was Legal Assistant to the Medical Department of the Local Government Board, becoming Legal Adviser in 1883. He was a member of the Council of University College London, 1869-1906, and Vice-President of the Senate in 1878 and 1882. Rotton was knighted in 1899. He died on 9 April 1926.
No information could be found at the time of compilation.
Henry Crabb Robinson was born at Bury St Edmunds on 13 March 1775. After education at small private schools, he was articled in 1790 to an attorney at Colchester. Coming into an inheritance in 1798 he went travelling, mainly in Germany, and acquired a thorough knowledge of the German language. He settled at Jena and entered the University there on 20 October 1802. He left Jena in the autumn of 1805 and returned to England. He took a post at The Times as a correspondent, which involved him travelling a good deal. In 1809 he joined the Middle Temple and was called to the Bar on 8 May 1813. He joined the Norfolk circuit. In 1828 he retired. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1829. He died at the age of 91 in London. Apart from his posthumous Diary, letters and memoranda, Robinson wrote little that is noteworthy, but he had acquired the friendship of the most notable men in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. He was involved in founding the Athenaeum Club and University College London.
David Booth was born in Kennetles, Forfarshire, on 9 February 1766. He was almost entirely self-taught. In his early life he was engaged in business, mainly the brewing industry, but he then decided to become a schoolmaster in Newburgh, Fifeshire. Shortly before 1820 he moved to London, where he was involved with literature. He also supervised the publications for press of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. He wrote some articles on brewing for the Society. In 1806 he had published an 'Introduction to an Analytical Dictionary of the English language'. In 1831 he brought out 'Principles of English Composition', and in 1837 ' Principles of English grammar'. The first volume of the 'Analytical Dictionary of the English language' appeared in 1835: it was the only one published. Booth died in Fifeshire on 5 December 1846.
Thomas Humphry Ward, who married Mary Augusta Arnold in 1872, was a Fellow of Brasenose College Oxford, where he was Tutor from 1870 to 1881, when the family moved to London. There he wrote leaders for The Times, while his wife reviewed books for the Pall Mall Gazette and for The Times itself, as well as writing articles for Macmillan's Magazine. In 1884 Mrs Humphry Ward's novel Miss Bretherton appeared, to be followed by Robert Elsmere, her first major novel, in 1888, and by over twenty-five other novels. In 1908 she was one of the founders of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League. During the First World War, Mary Ward was asked by Theodore Roosevelt to undertake a series of articles to explain to Americans what England was doing during the war. After Eton and Oxford, Arnold Ward acted as Special Correspondent for The Times in Egypt, the Sudan and India from 1899 to 1902. He then studied for the Bar and in 1910 became MP for West Hertfordshire. In 1914-1915 he served with the Hertfordshire Yeomanry in Egypt and Cyprus. Dorothy Ward helped with the work of the Passmore Edwards Settlement (now Mary Ward House) which her mother founded, and with children's play centres and a school for invalid children. She accompanied her mother to visit war zones in France during the First World War.
David Hannay was born in London, the son of the novelist and critic James Hannay. He was an historian and journalist and was vice-consul at Barcelona, probably during 1897. He helped found the Navy Record Society. He wrote for the Pall Mall Gazette, the Saturday Review and St James's Gazette. His published works included the lives of Admiral Blake, Tobias Smollett, and Frederick Marryat; a short history of the Royal Navy; and a work on the great chartered companies.
Ronalds was born in London on 21 February 1788. He was educated at private school and displayed a liking for experiments. He later became skilled in practical mechanics and draughtsmanship. He devoted his life to practical electricity, and in 1816 invented the electric telegraph. In 1843 he was made honorary Director and Superintendent of the Meteorological Observatory at Kew in London. In 1852 he retired from the directorship of the Kew observatory. He then lived for many years abroad, mostly in Italy, where he was occupied in compiling a catalogue of books relating to electricity and in completing his electrical library. Ronalds was knighted in 1871. He died in Sussex on 8 August 1873.
Cavan McCarthy is a bibliographer and poet.
Sharpey entered Edinburgh University in August 1817, to study the humanities and natural philosophy. In 1818 he commenced medical studies and in 1821 was admitted as a member of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons. He graduated MD of Edinburgh in 1823, and obtained the Fellowship of the College of Surgeons there in 1830. In 1834 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1836 he was appointed to the Chair of Anatomy and Physiology at University College London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1839. He was appointed an Examiner in Anatomy at London University in 1840. In 1844 he was made a member of the Council of the Royal Society and in 1853 was appointed Secretary in place of Thomas Bell. For 15 years from 1861, Sharpey was one of the members appointed by the Crown on the General Council of Medical Education and Registration. In 1871 he retired as Secretary due to failure of eyesight. Sharpey died from bronchitis on 11 April 1880 in London and was buried at Arbroath.
Morris W Travers was a demonstrator at University College London from 1894 (Assistant Professor from 1898). He assisted Professor Sir William Ramsay in experiments on argon, and collaborated with him in work on krypton, neon and xenon. In 1904 Travers was appointed Professor of Chemistry at University College Bristol. From 1907 to 1914 he was Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. In 1927 he became Honorary Professor, Fellow and Nash Lecturer in Chemistry at Bristol. He became President of the Faraday Society in 1936, and in 1937 he retired from Bristol University. His Life of Sir William Ramsay was published in London in 1956.
John Sinclair was born on 10 May 1754 at Thurso Castle in Caithness, Scotland. He was educated in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oxford. He read law but had no intention of practising. At the age of sixteen he inherited, by his father's death, extensive estates in Caithness. In 1780 Sinclair became a Member of Parliament for Caithness. In 1785 his first wife died and he abandoned public life for a time and started on a foreign tour. In 1786 he received a baronetcy from Pitt. He started to devote much energy to the collection of statistics and became one of the earliest statisticians. In 1790 he designed a 'Statistical Account of Scotland', asking all the parish ministers of Scotland for information on the natural history, population and productions of their parishes. The results were published at various periods during the next ten years. Sinclair also devoted a lot of time to improvement of his estates in Caithness. He persuaded Pitt to establish a Board of Agriculture and in 1793 he was appointed President of it. He attempted an account of England by parishes but this was abandoned mainly due to opposition. Sinclair died on 21 December 1835.
West was a student at Magdalene College Cambridge.
Mervyn Peake was born in China on 9 July 1911. He attended Tientsin Grammar School and Eltham College, Kent. He became a poet, novelist, painter, playwright and illustrator. He married Maeve Gilmore, an artist, in 1937 and had two sons and one daughter. Peake died on 17 November 1968. Publications include: Rhymes Without Reason (1944); Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor (1945, reprinted 1966); The Craft of the Lead Pencil (1946); Titus Groan (novel, 1946); Letters from a Lost Uncle (1948); The Glassblowers (poem) and Gormenghast (novel), awarded the W H Heinemann Foundation Prize, Royal Society of Literature (1950); Mr Pye (1953); The Wit to Woo (play, 1957); Titus Alone (novel, 1959); The Rime of the Flying Bomb (1962); Titus Groan (novel, reprinted as trilogy in UK and USA, 1967); A Reverie of Bone (poems, 1967).
Graham Greene was born on 2 October 1904. Following graduation from Oxford he joined the staff of The Times newspaper in 1926, became literary editor of The Spectator in 1940, and during the war worked in the Foreign Office. He was Director of the publishers Eyre & Spottiswoode from 1944 to 1948 and of Bodley Head publishers from 1958 to 1968.
Born at Cloughballymore, Ireland, 1733; sent to Poictiers to complete his education; entered the Jesuit novitiate at St Omer, 1754; left and returned to Ireland, 1755; his elder brother having been killed in a duel, came into possession of the family estates; having conformed to the established church, called to the Irish bar, 1766; ceased to practise after two years and pursued scientific studies in London; studied Greek at Cregg, 1773; resided in London, 1777-1787; became known to eminent contemporaries and corresponded with learned men in Europe; his library, sent from Galway to London in 1780, was captured by an American privateer; elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, 1780; received the Copley medal for a series of papers on chemical affinity, 1782; published the first systematic treatise on mineralogy in English, 1784; his treatise was translated into French, German, and Russian; delicate health caused him to adopt a more retired life; settled at no 6 Cavendish Row, Dublin, 1787; joined the Royal Irish Academy; President of the Royal Irish Academy, 1799; presided over the Dublin Library and `Kirwanian' Societies; received a gold medal from the Royal Dublin Society in acknowledgment of his services in procuring the Leskeyan cabinet of minerals for their museum; a member of the Edinburgh Royal Society and of a number of foreign academies; honorary LLD, University of Dublin, 1794; declined Lord Castlereagh's offer of a baronetcy; honorary inspector-general of his majesty's mines in Ireland; involved in various scientific controversies; finally adopted a Unitarian form of belief, and spent much time in scriptural study; died, 1812; buried in St George's Church, Lower Temple Street, Dublin. Publications include: Elements of Mineralogy (London, 1784); An Estimate of the Temperatures of Different Latitudes (London, 1787); Essay on Phlogiston (London, 1787); Geological Essays (London, 1799); An Essay on the Analysis of Mineral Waters (1799); Logick (2 volumes, London, 1807); Metaphysical Essays (1811); many papers on various scientific subjects.
John Pafford was born on 6 March 1900. He was educated at Trowbridge High School and at the Faculty of Arts at University College London, 1919-1923, becoming a fellow of UCL in 1956. Pafford began work as a Library Assistant at University College London, 1923-1925; went on to become Librarian, and Tutor, at Selly Oak Colleges, 1925-1931 (Hon. Fellow 1985); then Sub-Librarian at the National Central Library, 1931-1945. He was Lecturer at University of London School of Librarianship, 1937-1961; also Goldsmiths' Librarian of the University of London, 1945-1967. He became Library Adviser, Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas, 1960-1968.
Rudolf Olden was a writer on German politics and government.
Maxwell Bruce Donald was educated at the Royal College of Science and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served in the European War from 1915 to 1919. He was a Sir Alfred Yarrow Scholar in 1921; then in 1923 he became a demonstrator in physical chemistry at the Royal College of Science. He was appointed Chemical Engineer for the Chilean Nitrate Producers Association in 1925 and adviser on bitumen emulsions for the Royal Dutch-Shell Group in 1929. Donald became a lecturer in Chemical Engineering at University College London in 1931 and Reader in 1947. From 1951 to 1965 he was Ramsay Memorial Professor of Chemical Engineering at University College London. He held the position of Honorary Secretary of the Institution of Chemical Engineers from 1937 to 1949. He published (with H.P.Stevens) 'Rubber in Chemical Engineering' in 1933 and 1949; 'Elizabethan Copper' in 1955; and 'Elizabethan Monopolies' in 1961.
Born in Great Berkhamsted, 1850; entered University College London, 1867; Demonstrator at University College London; Professor of Anatomy, University College London, 1877-1919; married Jenny Klingberg of Stockholm, god-daughter of the famous soprano Jenny Lind, 1884; three children, but his only son died young; examiner in anatomy at many universities, and to the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons; a founder member of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and President, 1896-1897; knighted for his services to medical education in London and as inspector under the Vivi-Section Act (1876), 1919; Emeritus Professor of Anatomy, University College London; Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; LLD, Edinburgh; ScD, Dublin; Fellow of the Zoological Society; a member of various scientific societies overseas; died, 1930. Publications: with others, edited and contributed to Quain's Anatomy (9th and 10th editions) and Ellis's Demonstrations of Anatomy (10th and 11th editions).
The Saint Christopher's Working Boys' Club was a youth club, based in Fitzroy Square. It was founded in 1894. It was supported by the University College London Christian Association and later by the students' Union. The club was wound up in 1946.
John Platt was born on 11 July 1860. He attended Harrow School and Trinity College Cambridge, where he was made a Fellow. He was Professor of Greek at University College London from 1894 till his death. He published an edition of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and various translations and papers on classical subjects. He died on 16 March 1925.
Thomas Kabdebo was a member of the Library staff at University College London Library. He published an edition of translations of the poems of the Hungarian poet Attila József (1905-1937) in 1966.
Raphael Powell was educated at Oxford University from 1922 to 1929. In 1931 he was appointed Assistant in Law at University College London. He left in 1932 to become Lecturer in Law at the University of Leeds until 1936. He was Head of the Law Department at University College Hull from 1937 to 1949. In 1949 he returned to University College London where he held the position of Reader in Law until 1955. From 1955 to 1964 he was Professor of Roman Law at University College London.
Born, 1885; eldest daughter of Sir George Dancer Thane (Professor of Anatomy at University College London, 1877-1919) and Jenny, daughter of August Klingberg of Stockholm and god-daughter of the famous Swedith soprano Jenny Lind; sister of Alice Ebba Thane and of George Augustus (who died young); attended South Hampstead High School; studied mathematics at Newnham College Cambridge; taught at Hulme Grammer School for Girls, Oldham, the Perse School for Girls, Cambridge, and at Wimbledon High School for more than 20 years; died, 1976.
Born, 1770; a naturalist, whose journeys included New South Wales; died, 1829. See The devil's wilderness: George Caley's journey to Mount Barks 1804, ed Alan E J Andrews (Blubber Head Press, Hobart, Australia, 1984); Reflections on the colony of New South Wales, ed J E B Currey (Angus & Robertson, London, 1967).
Evans was educated at the University of Birmingham, University College London and University College Hospital. From 1916 to 1918 he was in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He moved on to become Professor of Experimental Physiology in Leeds, 1918-1919. He joined the National Institute for Medical Research, 1919-1922. From 1922 to 1926 he was Professor of Physiology at St Bartholomew's Medical College, and from 1926 to 1949 he was Jodrell Professor of Physiology at University College London. He did national service from 1939 to 1944. Evans became Emeritus Professor of Physiology at the University of London in 1949. He was also a Consultant at the War Office from 1959. From 1946 to 1948 Evans was a member of the Council and Vice-President of the Royal Society. He was also Chairman of the Military Personnel Research Committee, War Office, 1948-1953. He was knighted in 1951. He published a couple of books on physiology and some papers on physiology and biochemistry. He died on 29 August 1968.
Thomas Donaldson was born in London, the eldest son of James Donaldson, an architect and district surveyor. After leaving school, Thomas travelled to the Cape of Good Hope and worked as a clerk in the office of a merchant. In 1810 he went as a volunteer in an expedition to attack the French in the island of Mauritius. He then returned home to study architecture in his father's office and at the Academy schools. During an extensive tour in Italy and Greece he acquired skills and experience. His first important work was the church of Holy Trinity in South Kensington, London, built in 1826-1829. In 1841 he was appointed the first Professor of Architecture at University College London, a post he held till 1865. Donaldson was a pioneer in the academic study of architecture, as well as an excellent draughtsman and writer on architecture. Among other structures, he designed University Hall in Gordon Square and All Saints' Church in Gordon Street, London. He played a leading part in the foundation of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Donaldson died in London in 1885.
No information could be found about William Jenkins at the time of compilation.
Born 1889; educated at the City of London School; Queen's College Cambridge (Scholar); Director of Antiquities, Iraq, 1929-1930; Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum; Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology, University of London, 1938-1946; Professor of Ancient Semitic Languages, University of London; Honorary Fellow, Queen's College Cambridge, 1935; Fellow of the British Academy, 1941; Professor Emeritus, University of London; Honorary Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies; Foreign Member, Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium; LittD; died, 1979. Publications include: 'The First Campaign of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, BC 705-681. The Assyrian text' (London, 1921); assisted with Sir E A T W Budge's 'The Babylonian Legends of the Creation, and the fight between Bel and the Dragon, as told by Assyrian tablets' (London, 1921); with D J Wiseman, 'Cuneiform Texts from Cappadocian Tablets in the British Museum' (London, 1921-1956); 'Babylonian Historical Texts relating to the capture and downfall of Babylon' (Methuen & Co, London, 1924); 'The Chronology of Philip Arrhidaeus, Antigonus and Alexander IV' (Paris, 1925); 'The Foundation of the Assyrian Empire', 'The Supremacy of Assyria', 'Sennacherib and Esarhaddon', 'The Age of Ashurbanipal', 'Ashurbanipal and the Fall of Assyria', in John B Bury, 'The Cambridge Ancient History' (from 1925); 'Early History of Assyria to 1000 BC' (1928); contributed to 'Royal inscriptions', by C J Gadd, L Legrain, and E R Burrows, in 'Ur Excavations. Ur Excavations. Texts', vol i (1928); 'Bible Illustrations selected and described by H R H Hall, Sidney Smith and S R K Glanville' [1934]; with I E S Edwards, 'Temporary Exhibition. Ancient Egyptian Sculpture lent by C S Gulbenkian' (London, 1937); 'Alalakh and Chronology' (Luzac & Co, London, 1940); 'Sir Flinders Petrie, 1853-1942' (Humphrey Milford, London [1943]); 'Isaiah, Chapters XL-LV. Literary criticism and history' (Oxford University Press, London, 1944); 'The Statue of Idri-mi' (London, 1949); 'Events in Arabia in the 6th Century AD', in 'Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London', vol xvi, pt 3, pp 425-68 (1954); 'The Practice of Kingship in Early Semitic Kingdoms', in Samuel H Hooke, 'Myth, Ritual, and Kingship', pp 22-73 (1958).
Born in Dublin, 1806; undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin; distinguished himself in science and classics; a contemporary and friend of Sir William Rowan Hamilton; researches respecting exponential functions led him to important results, 1826; graduated BA, 1827; printed in the Philosophical Transactions the discovery of two arbitrary and independent integers in the complete expression of an imaginary logarithm, and considered it a solution for various difficulties that had perplexed mathematicians, believing that he had elucidated the subject of the logarithms of negative and imaginary quantities, 1829; removed to Oxford and became an incorporated member of Oriel College, 1830; entered the King's Inns, Dublin, 1830; MA, Oxford, 1831; MA, Dublin, 1832; called to the English bar as member of the Inner Temple, 1831; for a short time went on the western circuit; since his mathematical conclusions were not at first universally accepted by contemporaries such as Sir John Herschel, he communicated to the British Association a defence and explanation of his discovery, supported by Sir William Rowan Hamilton's paper published in the British Association's Report, 1834; corresponded for many years with Hamilton, also interested in algebraical science and imaginaries, who communicated his discovery of quaternions to Graves first of all, and acknowledged his debt to his friend for his stimulus in 1843; Graves continued his mathematical investigations; stimulated Sir William Rowan Hamilton in the study of polyhedra, and received from him the first intimation of the discovery of the icosian calculus; contributed various papers on mathematical subjects to the Philosophical Magazine, London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and others, 1836-1856; member of the committee of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; elected a member of the Royal Society, 1839; subsequently sat on its council; Professor of Jurisprudence, University College London, 1839-1843; elected an examiner in laws in the University of London; twelve lectures on the law of nations were reported in the Law Times from 1845; a member of the Philological Society and of the Royal Society of Literature; appointed an assistant Poor Law Commissioner, 1846; appointed a poor-law inspector of England and Wales, 1847; died, 1870. Publications: articles on Roman law and canon law for the Encyclopædia Metropolitana; articles in Sir William Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography (3 volumes, London, 1844-1849), including lives of the jurists Cato, Crassus, Drusus, Gaius, and an article on the legislation of Justinian; various scientific papers.
Thomas Key was the son of a London physician and he studied medicine at Trinity College Cambridge. However, he was very interested in the sciences and political economy, and accepted the offer of the Chair of Mathematics at the University of Virginia. He was not happy in America and returned to England in 1827. He was appointed Professor of Latin at University College London in 1828. In addition he became in 1831 Headmaster, with Henry Malden, of University College School. In 1842 he resigned from the Chair of Latin, to become the sole Headmaster of the school and first Professor of Comparative Grammar. He held these posts until his death in 1875. Key published a Latin Grammar in 1846 and a Latin Dictionary posthumously in 1888. He was also one of the founders of a Society for Philological Inquiries, a member of the Committee of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and one of the founders of the London Library.
Thomas Webster: born in Scotland, c1772; attended Aberdeen University; trained as an architect in London; Clerk of Works at the Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, London, 1799; designed its lecture theatre, 1800; became a member of the newly-founded Geological Society, 1809; conducted geological investigations, including the Isle of Wight, 1811-1813; held various offices in the Geological Society from 1812; his publications from 1814 highlighted previously unknown aspects of British geology, including pioneering work on the stratigraphy of the Isle of Wight; an associate of G B Greenough, to whose Geological Map of England and Wales (1819) he contributed; one of the first Fellows of the Geological Society, 1825; granted a government pension of £50 a year for his services to geology; appointed first Professor of Geology at University College London, 1841; died in London Street, Fitzroy Square, London, 1844; buried in Highgate cemetery; associated with a rare British mineral, Websterite, and with various fossils. Publications include: edited John Imison's Elements of Science and Art (Cadell & Davies, London, 1808, and London, 1822); `On the fresh-water formations in the Isle of Wight, with some observations on the strata over the Chalk in the south-east part of England', Transactions of the Geological Society, ii, pp 161-254 (1814); papers for the Royal Society on the geology of the Upper Secondary and Tertiary strata of south-east England (1814-1825); with Sir Henry Charles Englefield, Description of ... the Isle of Wight (Payne and Foss, London, 1816); with Mrs William Parkes, edited Encyclopædia of Domestic Economy (London, 1844).
William Emerson was born in Hurworth, Durham, on 14 May 1701. He went into teaching but did not take to it, so he decided to devote himself entirely to the study of mathematics. In 1749 he published his treatise on 'Fluxions', the first of a series of books. 'Elements of Geometry' was published in 1763. He also published a regular course of mathematical manuals for young students. Emerson died on 20 May 1782.
Robert Grant was born in Edinburgh on 11 November 1793. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and at the University of Edinburgh, graduating M.D. in 1814. From 1815 to 1820 Grant studied medicine and natural history in Paris and at many continental universities. He returned to Edinburgh in 1820 and devoted himself to natural history. In 1824 he gave lectures on comparative anatomy of the invertebrate for his friend Dr John Barclay, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He believed in the transformation of species and the Darwinian theory of natural selection. Charles Darwin was his intimate companion in study. Grant wrote numerous original papers during this period. In June 1827 he was elected Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Zoology at University College London and became absorbed in teaching for the next 46 years. He also lectured at other institutions. In 1836 he became a fellow of the Royal Society. Grant died on 23 August 1874 at the age of 80.
Jacques Vivier was probably a professional scribe working in Paris at the end of the 16th century. No further biographical information is currently available.
Pierre Seguin was born in 1566. He was a doctor in Paris; Professor of Surgery at the College Royal de France, 1594-1599; Professor of Medicine, 1599-1618 and 1623-1630; surgeon to King Louis XIII; and Principal Physician to the Queen-mother, Anne of Austria. He died in 1648.
Guy de Chauliac, a French surgeon, also known as Guido de Cauliaco, was one of the most famous surgical writers of the middle ages. At Avignon, he was physician to Pope Clement VI as well as two further popes. His major work Chirurgia magna (1363) was used as a manual by physicians for three centuries.
Charles Alexandre Lesueur was born in 1778, the son of a French naval officer. Aged 23, he sailed from his home at Le Havre, France, on an expedition to Australia and Tasmania. During the next 4 years, Lesueur and the naturalist François Péron collected over 100,000 zoological specimens representing 2,500 new species, and Lesueur made 1,500 drawings. Lesueur met William Maclure in 1815, and was persuaded to join him in Philadelphia where he lived until the end of 1825. Lesueur travelled on Maclure's 'Boatload of Knowledge' to Mount Vernon, Indiana, and then a few miles on to New Harmony. He remained there until 1837, when he returned to France. He was appointed curator of the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle du Havre in 1845, which was created to house his many drawings and paintings. He died in 1846.
Frederick Christian Lewis was born in London, in 1779. He was primarily a printmaker and engraver, and his prints were highly valued by his contemporaries. He became engraver of drawings to Princess Charlotte, Prince Leopold, George IV, William IV, and Queen Victoria. He also made tours in Europe producing various etchings. He died in Enfield, Middlesex, in 1856.
Biographical information regarding B A Vitry was unavailable at the time of compilation.
Sir Richard Owen was born in Lancaster, in 1804. He was educated at Lancaster Grammar School and then enlisted as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. He became interested in surgery He returned to Lancaster and became indentured to a local surgeon, in 1820. He entered the University of Edinburgh medical school, in 1824 and privately attended the lectures of Dr John Barclay. He moved to London and became apprentice to John Abernethy, surgeon, philosopher and President of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1825. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1826. He became Assistant Curator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in 1827, and commenced work cataloguing the collection. He set up a private practice in Lincoln's Inn Fields. He became lecturer on comparative anatomy at St Bartholomew's Hospital, in 1829. He met Georges Cuvier in 1830 and attended the 1831 debates between Cuvier and Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, in Paris. He worked in the dissecting rooms and public galleries of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, in 1831. He published anatomical work on the cephalopod Nautilus, and started the Zoological Magazine, in 1833. He worked on the fossil vertebrates brought back by Darwin on the Beagle. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1834; Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, in 1836-1856; and gave his first series of Hunterian Lectures to the public, in 1837. He was awarded the Wollaston gold medal by the Geological Society, in 1838; helped found the Royal Microscopical Society, in 1839; and identified the extinct moa of New Zealand from a bone fragment, 1839. He refused a knighthood in 1842. He examined reptile-like fossil bones found in southern England which led him to identify "a distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles" he named Dinosauria, in 1842. He developed his concept of homology and of a common structural plan for all vertebrates or 'archetype'. He became Joint Conservator of the Hunterian Museum with William Clift, in 1842, and Conservator, in 1849. He was elected to 'The Club', founded by Dr Johnson, in 1845. He was a member of the government commission for inquiring into the health of London, in 1847, including Smithfield and other meat markets, in 1849. He described the anatomy of the newly discovered (in 1847) species of ape, the gorilla, [1865]. He engaged in a long running public debate with Thomas Henry Huxley on the evolution of humans from apes. He was a member of the preliminary Committee of organisation for the Great Exhibition of 1851. He was Superintendent of the natural history collections at the British Museum, in 1856, and began researches on the collections, publishing many papers on specimens. He was prosector for the London Zoo, dissecting and preserving any zoo animals that died in captivity. He taught natural history to Queen Victoria's children, in 1860. He reported on the first specimen of an unusual Jurassic bird fossil from Germany, Archaeopteryx lithographica, in 1863. He lectured on fossils at the Museum of Practical Geology, and he was Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution, during 1859-1861. His taxonomic work included a number of important discoveries, as he named and described a vast number of living and fossil vertebrates. He campaigned to make the natural history departments of the British Museum into a separate museum, leading to the construction of a new building in South Kensington to house the new British Museum (Natural History), opened in 1881; [now the Natural History Museum]. He was knighted in 1884. He died in Richmond in 1892.
Sir Everard Home was born in Hull, Yorkshire, in 1756. He was educated at Westminster School, and became a surgical pupil of his brother-in-law John Hunter (1728-1793), surgeon at St George's Hospital, London. Home qualified through the Company of Surgeons in 1778 and was appointed assistant surgeon in the new naval hospital at Plymouth. In 1779 he went to Jamaica as staff surgeon with the army, but on returning to England in 1784 he rejoined Hunter at St George's as assistant. He was elected FRS in 1787, and in the same year he became assistant surgeon at St George's Hospital. In 1790-1791 Home read lectures for Hunter and in the following year he succeeded Hunter as lecturer in anatomy. Home joined the army in Flanders in 1793, but returned just before Hunter's sudden death in 1793. He then became surgeon at St George's Hospital and was also joint executor of Hunter's will with Matthew Baillie, Hunter's nephew. In 1793-1794 they saw Hunter's important work, On the Blood, Inflammation and Gun-Shot Wounds, through the press and in 1794 Home approached Pitt's government to secure the purchase for the nation of Hunter's large collection of anatomical and pathological specimens. After protracted negotiations the collection was purchased for £15,000 in 1799 and presented to the College of Surgeons. In 1806 the collection was moved from Hunter's gallery in Castle Street to form the Hunterian Museum at the new site of the college in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Home was chief curator and William Clift, who had worked with Hunter since 1792, was retained as resident conservator. Clift also had charge of Hunter's numerous folios, drawings, and accounts of anatomical and pathological investigations, which were essential for a clear understanding of the collection. In the years following Hunter's death Home built up a large surgical practice and published more than one hundred papers of varying quality, some very good, mainly in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The society awarded him its Copley medal in 1807. He gave the Croonian lectures fifteen times between 1794 and 1826. As Hunter's brother-in-law and executor he had great influence at the Royal College of Surgeons where he was elected to the court of assistants in 1801, an examiner in 1809, master in 1813 and 1821, and its first president in 1822. Having, with Matthew Baillie, endowed the Hunterian oration, he was the first Hunterian orator in 1814, and again in 1822. He became Keeper and a trustee of the Hunterian Museum in 1817 and was Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the college from 1804 to 1813, and again in 1821. His Lectures on Comparative Anatomy were published in 1814 with a volume of plates from drawings by Clift. A further volume of lectures followed in 1823 accompanied by microscopical and anatomical drawings by Bauer and Clift. Two more volumes appeared in 1828. This work, although lacking in structure, is an important record of Hunter's investigations, especially the last two volumes. Home drew heavily on Hunter's work in the papers and books which he published after Hunter's death. Before the collection was presented to the Company of Surgeons in 1799 Home arranged for Clift to convey to his own house Hunter's folio volumes and fasciculi of manuscripts containing descriptions of the preparations and investigations connected with them. He promised to catalogue the collection, refusing help, but, despite repeated requests, only a synopsis appeared in 1818. B C Brodie says that Home was busily using Hunter's papers in preparing his own contributions for the Royal Society. Home himself later stated that he had published all of value in Hunter's papers and that his one hundred articles in Philosophical Transactions formed a catalogue raisonée of the Hunterian Museum. Home destroyed most of Hunter's papers in 1823. After his death in 1832, a parliamentary committee was set up to enquire into the details of this act of vandalism. Clift told this committee in 1834 that Home had used Hunter's papers extensively and had claimed that Hunter, when he was dying, had ordered him to destroy his papers. Yet Home, who was not present at Hunter's death, had kept the papers for thirty years. Clift also declared that he had often transcribed parts of Hunter's original work and drawings into papers which appeared under Home's name. Home produced a few of Hunter's papers which he had not destroyed and Clift had copied about half of the descriptions of preparations in the collection, consequently enough of Hunter's work survives to suggest that Home had often published Hunter's observations as his own. Although the full extent of Home's plagiarism cannot be determined, there is little doubt that it was considerable and this seriously damaged his reputation.
Sir Richard Owen was born in Lancaster, in 1804. He was educated at Lancaster Grammar School and then enlisted as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. He became interested in surgery He returned to Lancaster and became indentured to a local surgeon, in 1820. He entered the University of Edinburgh medical school, in 1824 and privately attended the lectures of Dr John Barclay. He moved to London and became apprentice to John Abernethy, surgeon, philosopher and President of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1825. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1826. He became Assistant Curator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in 1827, and commenced work cataloguing the collection. He set up a private practice in Lincoln's Inn Fields. He became lecturer on comparative anatomy at St Bartholomew's Hospital, in 1829. He met Georges Cuvier in 1830 and attended the 1831 debates between Cuvier and Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, in Paris. He worked in the dissecting rooms and public galleries of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, in 1831. He published anatomical work on the cephalopod Nautilus, and started the Zoological Magazine, in 1833. He worked on the fossil vertebrates brought back by Darwin on the Beagle. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1834; Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, in 1836-1856; and gave his first series of Hunterian Lectures to the public, in 1837. He was awarded the Wollaston gold medal by the Geological Society, in 1838; helped found the Royal Microscopical Society, in 1839; and identified the extinct moa of New Zealand from a bone fragment, 1839. He refused a knighthood in 1842. He examined reptile-like fossil bones found in southern England which led him to identify "a distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles" he named Dinosauria, in 1842. He developed his concept of homology and of a common structural plan for all vertebrates or 'archetype'. He became Joint Conservator of the Hunterian Museum with William Clift, in 1842, and Conservator, in 1849. He was elected to 'The Club', founded by Dr Johnson, in 1845. He was a member of the government commission for inquiring into the health of London, in 1847, including Smithfield and other meat markets, in 1849. He described the anatomy of the newly discovered (in 1847) species of ape, the gorilla, [1865]. He engaged in a long running public debate with Thomas Henry Huxley on the evolution of humans from apes. He was a member of the preliminary Committee of organisation for the Great Exhibition of 1851. He was Superintendent of the natural history collections at the British Museum, in 1856, and began researches on the collections, publishing many papers on specimens. He was prosector for the London Zoo, dissecting and preserving any zoo animals that died in captivity. He taught natural history to Queen Victoria's children, in 1860. He reported on the first specimen of an unusual Jurassic bird fossil from Germany, Archaeopteryx lithographica, in 1863. He lectured on fossils at the Museum of Practical Geology, and he was Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution, during 1859-1861. His taxonomic work included a number of important discoveries, as he named and described a vast number of living and fossil vertebrates. He campaigned to make the natural history departments of the British Museum into a separate museum, leading to the construction of a new building in South Kensington to house the new British Museum (Natural History), opened in 1881; [now the Natural History Museum]. He was knighted in 1884. He died in Richmond in 1892.
Thomas James Poole was born in Bridgwater, in 1809. He was apprenticed as a surgeon to Anthony Huxtable and Henry Clark in 1825. He went on to receive his medical education at St Bartholemews hospital, and passed his LSA in 1830, and his MRCS in 1832. Poole practised around the Somerset area and was Medical Officer to the Bridgewater Union, fl 1847. He died in 1881.
Anthony Huxtable MRCS, was a surgeon, apothecary and accouchier apprenticed to John Ball in Williton, Somerset, in 1797. He was practising surgery in Bristol in 1825, and his address given as Union Street, King Square, Bristol in 1826.
Henry Clark was a surgeon, apothecary and accouchier practising in Bristol, in 1825.
Samuel Crompton was born in Berry Fold House, Over Darwen, Lancashire, in 1817. He was apprenticed to his uncle Samuel Barton, an opthalmic surgeon in Manchester (possibly 1790-1871; MRCS 1811 and FRCS 1844; surgeon to the Manchester Eye Hospital from 1815). He received his medical education partly at the Manchester School of Medicine, Pine Street, and St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, from 1838. He became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and a Licentiate of the Apothecaries Society in 1839, and later MD St Andrews, in 1862. He returned to Manchester to practice in 1840. He became surgeon to Henshaw's Blind Asylum, Old Trafford, c 1849. He was Consultant Physician at Salford Royal Hospital and Dispensary. He published a treatise entitled Results of an Investigation into the Causes of Blindness, with Practical Suggestions for the Preservation of the Eyesight, in 1849. He retired to Cranleigh, Surrey, in 1881. He died in 1891.
Hugh Owen Thomas was born in 1834. He came from 7 generations of bone-setters, originally from Anglesey in North Wales. He was apprenticed to his uncle, Dr Owen Roberts, at St Asaph in North Wales, in 1851. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University, and University College London. He become a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1857. He went to Liverpool in 1858, to help his father, and set up his own practice in 1859. He spent most of his working life in the slums of Liverpool treating the poor. From 1870, he ran a free clinic on Sundays, where he treated dockers, shipyard workers and seamen. In the treatment of tuberculosis and fractures, he strongly advocated the use of rest which should be 'enforced, uninterrupted and prolonged'. His ideas were published in Diseases of the hip, knee and ankle joints, with their deformities (1875). This was at a time when it was often suggested that excision or amputation were the solution for chronic bone disorders. In order to achieve rest and immobilisation he invented several types of splints that were manufactured in his own work shop by both a blacksmith and a saddler. He also invented a wrench for the reduction of fractures and an osteoclast to break and reset bones. He was elected a member of the Liverpool Medical Institution in 1876, published many works on orthopaedic surgery, and was given an honorary degree by the University of St Louis. He died in 1891.
Sir Anthony Carlisle was born in Stillington, Durham, in 1768. He was sent to his maternal uncle, Anthony Hubback, in York, for medical training. Following his uncle's death Carlisle transferred to a Durham surgeon, William Green, in 1784. Carlisle went to London in the late 1780s, and attended lectures by John Hunter, Matthew Baillie and others. He became the house pupil of Henry Watson, and on Watson's death succeeded him to the post of surgeon to the Westminster Hospital, in 1793. He began offering lectures on surgery in 1794, hoping to establish a formal medical school there. He advocated the systematic collection and publishing of hospital statistics. He was active in securing the collections of John Hunter for the Royal College of Surgeons, during the 1790s. He was one of the original members of the College in 1800. He sat on Council and the Court of Examiners. He served as Vice-President and twice as President (1829 and 1839). He delivered the Hunterian Oration in 1820. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1804. With William Nicholson, he electrolyzed water into its constituent gases and communicated this to the Royal Society in 1800. He secured the post of Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy in 1808, and also studied art there. He was appointed surgeon to the Duke of Gloucester and then surgeon-extraordinary to the Prince Regent (later King George IV). He was investigated but exonerated for three cases of neglect in 1838. He opposed male midwives on the grounds of modesty and incompetence. He died in 1840.