Showing 28 results

Authority record
ZSL Secretary
Zuckerman, Solomon
Zuckerman, Solomon
Person · 1904-1993

Solomon 'Solly' Zuckerman was a British public servant, zoologist and operational research pioneer. He was born in Cape Town in 1904, the second child of Moses and Rebecca Zuckerman (nee Glaser). Both his parents were the children of Jewish immigrants from Russia. He was educated at the South African College School. After studying medicine at the University of Cape Town and later attending Yale University, he went to London in 1926 to complete his studies at the University College Hospital Medical School.

He began his career at the Zoological Society of London in 1928, and worked as a research anatomist until 1932. It was in this period that he founded the intellectual dining club, Tots and Quots. In 1932, he published his work 'Social Life of Monkeys and Apes'.

He taught at the University of Oxford from 1934 to 1945, during which time he was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society.

He was a scientific advisor to the Allies on bombing strategy in the Second World War, for his work to advance the cause of nuclear non-proliferation, and for his role in bringing attention to global economic issues.

Zuckerman married Lady Joan Rufus Isaacs in 1939 and they had two children. He died in London in 1993 following a heart attack.
Yarrell, William
Yarrell, William
Person · 1784-1856

Yarrell was born in Duke Street, St James's in London, to Francis Yarrell and his wife Sarah (nee Blane). His father and uncle ran a newspaper agency and bookshop. He was educated at Dr Nicholson's School in Ealing. In 1802 he became a clerk with the Herries, Farquhar and Co. Bank. In 1803 he and his cousin, Edward Jones, joined his father's business. He acquired the reputation of being the best shot and best angler in London, soon becoming an expert naturalist. He sent many bird specimens to Thomas Bewick, who engraved them as woodcuts.

He joined the Royal Institution in 1817. His first publication was 'On the Occurrence of some Rare British Birds' (1825). This was published in the second volume of the 'Zoological Journal' and he later became one of that journal's editors. He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1825. He wrote in 1827 on the structure of the tracheae of birds and on plumage changes in pheasants. He corresponded and shared specimens with other naturalists including Thomas Bewick, Sir William Jardine, Prideaux John Selby, Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Jonathan Couch.

Yarrell was one of the original members of the Zoological Society of London. In 1833, he was a founder of what became the Royal Entomological Society of London. He served for many years as treasurer both of the Entomological Society and the Linnean Society. Yarrell's major works were 'A History of British Fishes' (1836) and 'A History of British Birds (1843).

Yarrell died during a trip to Great Yarmouth and a memorial was erected in St James's Church, Piccadilly. He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's in Bayford, Hertfordshire.

Yarrell had a number of species names after him, including the birds yellow-faced siskin (Carduelis yarrelli), the Chilean woodstar (Eulidia yarrelli) and the fish Yarrell's blenny (Chirolophis ascanii). The British subspecies of the white wagtail, the pied wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrelli) was also named after him.
Vigors, Nicholas Aylward
Vigors, Nicholas Aylward
Person · 1785-1840

Vigors was born at Old Leighlin, County Carlow, Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford. He served in the army during the Peninsular War from 1809-1811. He then returned to Oxford, graduating in 1815. He practiced as a barrister and became a Doctor of Civil Law in 1832.

He was co-founder of the Zoological Society of London in 1826, and its first Secretary until 1833. In 1833 he founded what became the Royal Entomological Society of London. He was a fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Society. He was the author of 40 papers, mostly on ornithology. He described 110 species of birds. He provided the text for John Gould's 'A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains' (1830-1832). One bird that he described was Sabine's Snipe. Vigors lent a skin for later editions of Thomas Bewick's 'History of British Birds'.

Vigors succeeded to his father's estate in 1828. He was MP for the borough of Carlow from 1832 until 1835. He briefly represented the constituency of County Carlow in 1835. Vigors won a by-election in 1837 and retained the seat until his death.
Stevens, Minnie Ivy
Person · 1923-

Secretary to the Accountant at ZSL London Zoo
Searson, Evelyn May
Person · 1923-

Secretary to the Scientific Director of ZSL
Sclater, William Lutley
Person · 1863-1944

Son of Philip Lutley Sclater and Jane Anne Eliza, the daughter of Sir David Hunter-Blair. He received his Master of Arts degree in Natural Science from Keble College, Oxford in 1885. He worked for two years as a Demonstrator at Cambridge and went on a collecting trip to British Guiana in 1886. He published about birds in the Ibis in 1887. In the same year he received an appointment as a deputy superintendent of the Indian Museum in Calcutta until 1891 when he joined the science faculty of Eton College. Sclater then took up the position of curator at the South African Museum, During his time in South Africa he continued his scientific writings, including the completion of the work 'Flora and Fauna of South Africa. In 1906, following a dispute with the Museum's board of trustees, Sclater resigned as curator. He travelled through Mombasa, Lake Victoria, Khartoum and Cairo before returning to England. He then moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, which had been founded by his wife's brother-in-law, General William Jackson Palmer. Palmer offered Sclater a small estate outside the city and a professorship at Colorado College where he helped in reorganising the museum. When the general died in 1909, the couple returned to England.

From 1909 Sclater became curator of the Bird Room at the Natural History Museum. While working there he compiled the 'Systema Avium Aethiopicarum' (1924-1930). He worked there until his death.

In 1912 Sclater published 'A History of the Birds of Colorado' in two volumes. During World War One he volunteered for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association.

Sclater was editor of 'Ibis' from 1913-1930, editor of the Zoological Record from 1921-1937, President of the British Ornithologist's Union from 1928-1933, and Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society 1931-1943. In 1930 he was awarded the Godman-Salvin God Medal. Known mainly for his work with birds, Sclater also described several new species of amphibians and reptiles. Four new species of snake were described by him in a single paper in 1891.

It was at Eton that he met his future wife, Charlotte Mellen Stephenson, an American divorcee whose two sons attended the school. They were married at St George's Cathedral in 1896. Both his stepsons were killed in action during World War One. In 1942 Charlotte died of injuries sustained during the bombing of London. In 1944 Sclater died at St George's Hospital, two days after a bomb fell on his home.
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Person · 1829-1913

Sclater was born at Tangier Park, Wootton St Lawrence, Hampshire, where his father William Lutley Sclater had a country house. George Sclater-Booth, 1st Baron Basing was his elder brother. Philip grew up at Hoddington House where he took an early interest in birds. He was educated in school at Twyford, Winchester College and Corpus Christi, Oxford, where he studied scientific ornithology. In 1851 he began to study law and was admitted as a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. In 1856 he travelled to America and visited Lake Superior and the upper St. Croix River. Sclater wrote about this in his 'Illustrated Travels'. In Philadelphia he met Spencer Baird, John Cassin and Joseph Leidy at the Academy of Natural Sciences. After returning to England, he practiced law for several years and attended meetings of the Zoological Society of London.

In 1858 Sclater published a paper in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, setting up six zoological regions which he called the Palaeartic, Aethiopina, Indian, Australasian, Neartic and Neotropical, which are still in use. He also developed the theory of Lemuria during 1864 to explain zoological coincidences relating to Madagascar to India.

He was Secretary of the Zoological Society of London for 42 years, from 1860-1902. He was briefly succeeded by his son, before the Council of the Society made a long-term appointment.

In 1874 he became private secretary to his brother George Sclater-Booth, MP. In 1875 he became President of the Biological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, where he joined in 18447 as a member. He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1873.

Sclater was the founder and editor of 'The Ibis', the journal of the British Ornithologists' Union. His office at 11 Hanover Square became a meeting place for all naturalists in London.

His collection of birds grew to nine thousand and he transferred them to the British Museum in 1886. At around the same time the museum was augmented by the collections of Gould, Salvin and Godman, Hume and others to become the largest in the world.

Among Sclater's books were 'Exotic Ornithology' (1866-1869), 'Nomenclator Avium' (1873), 'Argentine Ornithology' (1888-1889) and 'The Book of Antelopes' (1894-1900).

In June 1901 he received an honorary doctorate of Science from the University of Oxford.

In 1862 he married Jane Eliza Hunter Blair and they had one daughter and four sons. Their eldest son, William Lutley Sclater was also an ornithologist. Philip Sclater is buried in Odiham Cemetery.
Phillips, John Guest
Person · 1933-1987

John Guest Phillips was born in Swansea and educated at Llanelli Boys' Grammar School and the University of Liverpool, where, after gaining his Bsc, he joined the research group of Chester Jones to complete a PhD in endocrinology. Following his doctorate his took up a fellowship at the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory at Yale University with Grace E. Pickford. After a lectureship at Sheffield University, Phillips was appointed to the Chair of Zoology at the University of Hong Kong.

He returned to the United Kingdom to become Professor of Zoology from 1967-1979, and Dean of the Faculty of Science 1978-1980 at the University of Hull, Director of the Wolfson Institute for Gerontology 1979-1986, and later Vice-Chancellor of Loughborough University 1986-1987. He was Secretary of the Zoological Society of London. His research was predominantly in the fields of endocrinology, notably concerning the salt glands of sea birds, and the biological basis of ageing.
Ogilby, William
Person · 1805-1873

Ogilby was probably born in County Londonderry in 1805, the illegitimate son of Leslie Ogilby. He was educated at a small academy kept by a clergyman in Macclesfield, before proceeding to Belfast Academical Institution and then to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1824. He graduated in 1828 and was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1832. In 1827, he examined at Cambridge a living specimen of the species now known as the white-footed palm civet. He examined it again in London in August 1828, by which time he was sufficiently conversant with the organic structure of animals and the principles of taxonomy to recognise the creature as a previously undescribed species which he classified as an intermediate between the common genet and the common cat to which he assigned the name Paradoxurus leucopus. His description and classification of the animals appeared in a paper which was printed in the Zoological Journal of January 1829. The species he identified was included in Coenraad Temminck's 1839 monograph on the genus Paradoxurus.

His arrival in London gave him access to the works of Continental naturalists and to specimens of animals and birds held by the British Museum, the Zoological Society of London, the Linnean society and the East India Company. He became a regular visitor to the museums at Leiden and Paris, and he observed animals locomotion and behaviour at London Zoo, the Surrey Zoological Gardens at Newington, the Menagerie du Jardin des plantes and Paris and in the private collections such as that or Lord Derby.

From 1830 onwards, at meetings of the Zoological Society, he read explanatory papers and delivered commentaries on specimens donated to the Society's museum. Some forty of his reports were printed wither in full or abstract form are in the Society's Transactions and Proceedings during the years to 1841, describing and classifying new examples of mammals and birds from Australia, the Americas and India. In the same period he also read similar papers to the Linnaen Society and commented on fossil specimens to the Geological Society. Publication of his classifications established and named the several genera Cynictis (1833), Madoqua (1836), Pseudocheirus (1837), Chaeropus and Conilurus (1838), and placed many new species within previously established genera.

He chaired meeting of the Zoological Society of London from 1836, and by 1838 was not only one of its Fellows, but also a Fellow of the Linnean, Geological and Royal Astronomical Societies. In 1839 he was elected to the Council of the Zoological Society along with Charles Darwin, with Ogilby becoming the Society's Secretary shortly afterwards. In this latter capacity he conducted the Society's correspondence, controlled and catalogued its museum, recorded the animals in the zoological gardens and made recommendations for their purchase.

After his appointment as Secretary his contribution of scholarly papers and commentaries to the Zoological Society of London meetings declined. He last named a species (Cercopithecus tantalus - the Tantalus Monkey) in April 1841, and his final classification submission was made in January 1843. He continued as Secretary of the Society until resigning in 1847. He had been unremunerated in the post and was succeeded by a salaried official.

Ogilby inherited his father's Donagheady estate in 1845 just as the Great Famine was beginning to devastate Ireland. In December of the following year he tendered his resignation as Secretary of the Zoological Society, explaining that circumstances required his presence on the estate. He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1849 and of the Natural History Society of Dublin in 1862. He was commissioned a captain in the Royal Tyrone Militia in 1851, served as High Sheriff of Country Tyrone in 1852, was a county magistrate by 1854 and appointed a Deputy Lieutenant in 1863.

In 1830 he married Matilda Doria, a daughter of Niccolo Doria, Marquese di Spineto. In 1836 Ogilby named a species of antelope (Antilope doria) in his wife's honour. She died in 1849. He later married Adelaide Douglas, the daughter of the local rector of Donagheady. They had four sons and five daughters. He died at 12 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, on 1st September 1873.