William Lutley Sclater | |
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| Born | 23 September 1863 |
| Died | 4 July 1944 (aged 80) St. George's Hospital, London |
| Education | Keble College |
| Occupation(s) | zoologist; museum director |
| Spouse | Charlotte Mellen Stephenson |
| Parent(s) | Philip Lutley Sclater, Jane Anne Eliza Hunter-Blair |
William Lutley Sclater (23 September 1863 – 4 July 1944 [1] ) was a British zoologist and museum director. He was the son of Philip Lutley Sclater and was named after his paternal grandfather, also William Lutley Sclater. [2]
William's mother, Jane Anne Eliza, was the daughter of Sir David Hunter-Blair, 3rd Baronet, and a sister-in-law of Sir Walter Elliot the Indian naturalist. [1] Sclater received his Master of Arts degree in Natural Science from Keble College at Oxford in 1885. He worked for two years as a Demonstrator at Cambridge under Professor Adam Sedgwick 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 from 1887 until 1891, when he joined the science faculty of Eton College. [3]
It was at Eton that he met his future wife, Charlotte Mellen Stephenson, an American divorcée whose two sons attended the school. The couple were married at St. George's Cathedral in London on 1 February 1896 at St. George, shortly after which they moved to Cape Town, South Africa. Here, Sclater took up the position of curator at the South African Museum, whose collections he reorganized and moved into a new facility. During his time in South Africa, he continued his scientific writings, including completion of the work Flora and Fauna of South Africa. He also completed the four-volume series The Birds of South Africa, begun by Dr Arthur Stark; the five-volume Birds of Africa, begun by Captain George Shelley; and The Birds of Kenya Colony and the Uganda Protectorate, begun by Sir Frederick John Jackson.
In 1906, following a dispute with the museum's board of trustees, Sclater resigned as curator. He travelled with his wife through Mombasa, Lake Victoria, Khartoum, and Cairo before returning to England. He then moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, which had been founded by Charlotte's brother-in-law, General William Jackson Palmer. [1] Palmer offered Sclater a small estate outside the city and a professorship at Colorado College. Here, he helped in reorganizing the museum. [3] 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), a scholarly work that assisted further research. [4] He worked there until his death in 1944.
In 1912, Sclater published A History of the Birds of Colorado in two volumes. During the Great War, he volunteered for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association. Both his stepsons were killed in action during the war:
Sclater was editor of the quarterly journal Ibis from 1913 to 1930, editor of The Zoological Record from 1921 to 1937, president of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1928 to 1933, and secretary of the Royal Geographical Society from 1931 to 1943. In 1919 and 1920, he and his wife travelled around the globe. In 1930, he was awarded the Godman-Salvin Gold Medal. [1]
In 1942, Charlotte died of injuries sustained during the bombing of London. Two years later, William Sclater died at St. George's Hospital, two days after a V-1 flying bomb fell over his home at 10 Sloane Court in Chelsea on Sunday, 2 July 1944. [1]
Known mainly for his work with birds, Sclater also described several new species of amphibians and reptiles. [7] [8] Four new snakes were described by him in a single paper in 1891. [9] Enuliophis sclateri Boulenger 1894 is a snake species named after his father Philip Sclater. [10]
Frederick DuCane GodmanDCL FRS FLS FGS FRGS FES FZS MRI FRHS was an English lepidopterist, entomologist and ornithologist. He was one of the twenty founding members of the British Ornithologists' Union. Along with Osbert Salvin, he is remembered for studying the fauna and flora of Central America.
Richard Bowdler Sharpe was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several monographs on bird groups and produced a multi-volume catalogue of the specimens in the collection of the museum. He described many new species of bird and also has had species named in his honour by other ornithologists including Sharpe's longclaw and Sharpe's starling.
Philip Lutley Sclater was an English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world. He was Secretary of the Zoological Society of London for 42 years, from 1860 to 1902.
Johannes Gerardus Keulemans was a Dutch bird illustrator. For most of his life he lived and worked in England, illustrating many of the best-known ornithology books of the nineteenth century.
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Sir Frederick John Jackson, was an English administrator, explorer and ornithologist.
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The Assam keelback, commonly known as Peal's keelback, is a species of snake in the subfamily Natricinae of the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to Northeast India. It has recently been rediscovered after 129 years in Arunachal Pradesh.
Ibis, subtitled the International Journal of Avian Science, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the British Ornithologists' Union. It was established in 1859. Topics covered include ecology, conservation, behaviour, palaeontology, and taxonomy of birds. The editor-in-chief is Dominic J. McCafferty. The journal is published by Wiley-Blackwell in print and online. It is available free on the internet for institutions in the developing world through the OARE scheme.
Arthur Humble Evans FRSE was a British ornithologist.
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Sclater's lark is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae. It is found in Namibia and South Africa. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland. It is threatened by habitat loss.
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Guy Chester Shortridge (1880–1949) was a South African mammalogist who undertook expeditions in his own state, in Java, Guatemala, Southern India, Burma and at the prompting of Oldfield Thomas travelled to Southwest Australia.
Frederick William Styan was an English tea merchant who spent many years in China. During his stay he obtained numerous specimens of fauna which were donated to the British Museum. Several species such as Styan's bulbul are named after him.
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