One of the BOC founders at the Mona Hotel on 5 October 1892 was Count Tommaso Salvadori, distinguished ornithologist and close associate of Richard Bowdler Sharpe (see Founders’ Blog no.1). Salvadori, vice-director of the Museum of Zoology at Turin University, had a long association with the BOU, becoming a Foreign Member in 1872 and an Honorary Member in 1890, and with the British Museum (Natural History), which he first visited in 1877. In 1890 he […]
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Founders of the British Ornithologists’ Club: 10. William Graham (1850-1897)
Of all 15 founders of the BOC, William Graham has proved the most elusive to track down information on or any picture. Indeed, almost the only published source that has thus far come to light is his brief, half-page, obituary in Ibis. As this notes, part of the reason for his elusiveness may be that “Graham disliked writing.” Seemingly, he also disliked public speaking, at least on ornithology (see below), as there are no records […]
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Founders of the British Ornithologists’ Club: 9. Edward Bidwell (1845-1929)
Although his name does not occur regularly in ornithological circles today, Edward Bidwell joined the BOU in 1880 (aged 35) and, despite lacking scientific training, became a Committee Member in 1887 (until 1890). He joined the BOC on its formation and became a Committee Member in 1910, when in his mid-sixties, and remained in post until 1913. He served as a Vice President until his death in 1929 (aged 84), having attended the majority of […]
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Founders of the British Ornithologists’ Club: 8. William Thomas Blanford (1832–1905)
The account below is abridged and extended from Biographies for Birdwatchers, The Lives of Those Commemorated in Western Palearctic Bird Names by Barbara and Richard Mearns. William Blanford was an energetic multi-talented scientist, having been elected an FRS even before he joined the BOU in 1873, and also served on the councils of the Royal Society, Geological Society, Geographical Society and Zoological Society. He was born near Fleet Street in London on 7 October 1832, […]
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Founders of the British Ornithologists’ Club: 7. William Lutley Sclater (1863–1944)
While little remembered today, William Lutley Sclater was a founding member of the British Ornithologists’ Club and a successful ornithologist, well-known in his day especially for his museum work and studies on African birds. He also studied mammals, and described several new species of amphibians and reptiles in a paper in 1891, notably four new snake species including Enuliophis sclateri, named for his father Philip. He was born in 1863 in the Hanover Square district in London, the eldest of […]
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Founders of the British Ornithologists’ Club: 6. Philip Lutley Sclater (1829 ̶ 1913)
Philip Lutley Sclater (1829-1913) was a person for whom the term “indefatigable” might have been invented. His astonishing diversity of interests and contributions to numerous organisations included being a founder member of both the British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) and the British Ornithologists’ Club (BOC), as well as subsequently playing a major role in the running of each. Born in Hampshire to a wealthy family, he was fascinated by natural history, in particular birds, from an […]
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