Patrick Bateson was an English biologist with interests in ethology and phenotypic plasticity. He was Professor at the University of Cambridge and served as President of the Zoological Society of London from 2004 to 2014.
Sir William Henry Flower was a surgeon, museum curator and comparative anatomist, who became a leading authority on mammals and especially on the primate brain. He supported Thomas Henry Huxley in a controversy with Richard Owen about the human brain and eventually succeeded Owen as Director of the Natural History Museum.
On the recommendation of Huxley and others, in 1862 he became Conservator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, holding the post for 22 years, and in 1864 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1870 he became Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy, in succession of Huxley, and began a series of lectures that ran for fourteen years, all on aspects of Mammalia. The essence was published in his books of 1870 and 1891. He was elected President of the Zoological Society of London in 1879, holding the post for life, and in 1882 was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society. From 1883 to 1885 he was President of the Anthropological Institute.
In 1884, on the retirement of Sir Richard Owen, he was appointed to the directorship of what were then the Natural History departments of the British Museum in South Kensington. In 1889 he was chosen as President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, having previously headed its biological section in 1878 and its anthropological section in 1881 (being chosen again in 1894). In 1893 he served as President of the Museums Association. In 1895, in addition to his role as Director he took over the post of Keeper of Zoology, holding it until his retirement.
Richard William Alan Onslow, 5th Earl of Onslow, styled Viscount Cranley until 1911, was a British peer, diplomat, parliamentary secretary and government minister. He was President of the Zoological Society of London from 1936 to 1942.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was a member of the British royal family as the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. He was President of the Zoological Society of London for two decades and was appointed an honorary fellow in 1977.
Nicholas Avrion Mitchison is a British zoologist and immunologist. He was President of the Zoological Society of London 1989-1992
Field Marshall Sir John Lyon Chapple is a retired British Army officer who served as Chief of the General Staff from 1988-1992. He was President of the Zoological Society of London 1992-1994.
Sir George Clerk of Pennyculk, 6th Baronet was a Scottish politician who served as the Tory MP for Edinburghshire, Stamford and Dover. He was Chairman of the Royal Academy of Music and President of the Zoological Society of London 1862-1867.
Henry Gascoyne Maurice was President of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea 1920-1938 and President of the Zoological Society of London 1942-1948. He also headed the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Agriculture from 1912 and was Fisheries Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries from 1920 until his retirement in 1938, after which he served on the White Fish Commission from its inception in 1938 until its suspension on the outbreak of the Second World War.
Prince Albert of Sax-Coburg and Gotha was the consort of Queen Victoria from their marriage on 10th February 1840 until his death in 1861. He was President of the Zoological Society of London 1851-1862.
Sir Arthur Landsborough Thomson was a Scottish medical researcher, amateur ornithologist, ornithological author and expert on bird migration. He was President of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1848-1955. He was President of the Zoological Society of London 1946-1950. He was Chairman of the British Trust for Ornithology 1941-1947 and won the Trust's Bernard Tucker Medal in 1957. In 1959 he was awarded the Godman-Salvin Medal.