| AdminHistory | Cuthbert Collingwood (1826-1908) was a naturalist, physician, and surgeon. He wrote several scientific papers and publications, including Rambles of a Naturalist on the Shores and Waters of the China Seas (1868), his most famous publication.
Collingwood was born on 25 December 1826 in Greenwich, England. He was the fifth of six sons of Samuel Collingwood (1786-1852), an architect and contractor and wife Frances Collingwood.
He was educated at King’s College School and then went on to attend Christ Church, Oxford, graduating with a B.A. in 1849, M.A. in 1852 and M.B. in 1854. Subsequently, he studied at Edinburgh University and at Guy's Hospital, as well as spending time in the medical schools of Vienna and Paris. He married Clara Mowbray (d1871), daughter of Lieutenant Colonel, Sir Robert Mowbray. They had no children together.
Collingwood was elected a Fellow at the Linnean Society in 1853 and served on its council in 1868. He was the lecturer of Botany at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary School of Medicine between 1858-1866 and in addition, lectured on Biology at the Liverpool School of Science. Between 1866-1967, Collingwood served as a surgeon and naturalist on HMS Rifleman and HMS Serpent, travelling on the China Seas and carrying out research in marine zoology. He was also senior physician at the Northern Hospital in Liverpool. Between 1876-1877 he travelled to Palestine and Egypt.
Collingwood was a member of the New Jerusalem Church and published many expositions of his religious beliefs, including ‘A Vision of Creation’ and ‘The Bible and the Age, Principles of Consistent Interpretation.’ For the remaining years of his life, Collingwood resided in Paris, where he died on 20 October 1908. |
Lieutenant Colonel Edward Frederick Kelaart (1819-1840), a physician and naturalist, conducted some of the earliest systematic research in the region of Ceylon [Sri Lanka], including documenting its numerous plants and animals. Two bird species from Sri Lanka are named after Kelaart: the hawk-eagle ‘Nisaetus kelaarti’ and the black-throated munia (‘Lonchura kelaarti’). In addition, the jungle nightjar, has a subspecies named ‘Caprimulgus indicus kelaarti.’ The toad ‘Adenomus kelaartii,’ likewise is named after him. There is also a bust of Kelaart made by sculptor Henry Weigall.
Kelaart was born in Colombo, Ceylon on 21 November 1819 to William Henry Kelaart and Anna Johanna Frederika Meyer. His family was of German and Dutch heritage but had settled in [Ceylon] from around 1726. Edward became a medical assistant for the Ceylon government at age sixteen. A few years later, in 1838, he attended the University of Edinburgh and received an MD from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1841. After returning to Ceylon, he joined the Army as a Staff Assistant Surgeon in 1841. In 1843, he was posted to Gibraltar as an Army Surgeon where he published the book ‘Flora Calpensis: Contributions to the Botany and Topography of Gibraltar and its Neighbourhood,’ in 1846. He was elected as a Fellow of the Linnean Society on 17 February 1846 and was seconded by Ray Lankester and J.D. Hooker. In 1848, he started conducting systematic studies in Ceylon. He was also a member of the Geological Society of London, although he did not publish any work on the topic.
In 1852, Kelaart was promoted to Staff Surgeon and published ‘Prodromus fauna Zeylanica, on the Ceylonese vertebrate fauna.’ He travelled extensively across Ceylon, in particular exploring the highland regions of Nuwara Eliya, collecting a large number of reptiles which he sent to the museum curator-zoologist Edward Blyth.
In 1856, he was appointed Naturalist for the Government of Ceylon. His initial task was to investigate the pearl fisheries. He made significant contributions to taxonomy by identifying and describing 16 species of ‘Turbellaria’, 22 species of ‘Actiniaria,’ and 63 species of ‘Nudibranchia.'
Kelaart had seven children with his wife Fanny Sophia Hussey. He died on 31 August 1860, aboard the S.S. Ripon on passage back to England. He is buried at Southampton. |
| Description | Contains various notes and illustrations on marine invertebrates such as Salpa pinnata, Atlanta peronii, Patella oculus and Rhizostoma, as well as Geese. Also contains animal specimens, including of leptocephalus and drawings of Cephalopodous ova which are featured in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 11, Issue 50, February 1870, pp 90-94. |