William Thompson (naturalist)

For other people named William Thompson, see William Thompson (disambiguation).

William Thompson (December 2, 1805 – February 17, 1852) was an Irish naturalist celebrated for his founding studies of the natural history of Ireland, especially in ornithology and marine biology. Thompson published numerous notes on the distribution, breeding, eggs, habitat, song, plumage, behaviour, nesting and food of birds. These formed the basis of his three-volume The Natural History of Ireland, and were much used by contemporary and later authors such as Francis Orpen Morris.[1]

Contents

Early years

Thompson was born in the booming maritime city of Belfast, Ireland, the eldest son of a linen merchant, whose wealth would later permit Thompson to fund his own research without an academic affiliation. Thompson attended the newly formed Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where he got a degree in Biological Science. Founded by, amongst others, John Templeton, the school had a strong natural history section that produced a cohort of prominent naturalists. In 1826 he went on a Grand Tour accompanied by George Langtry, a Fortwilliam Belfast shipowner. They starting in Holland then travelled through Belgium down the Rhine to Switzerland and on to Rome and Naples. They returned via Florence, Geneva and Paris. Thompson's first scientific paper, The Birds of the Copeland Islands, was published in 1827 shortly after he joined the Belfast Natural History Society. In these years he became a member of the Belfast Literary Society.

Research

Thompson contributed up-to-date information on the birds of Ireland to Selby’s The Magazine of Zoology and Botany, The Annals of Natural History, The Magazine of Natural History, and the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, and prepared the first comprehensive list of Ireland's birds for the 1840 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Glasgow. Other work, primarily about birds, was published in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London and the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. These papers formed the basis of his seminal work—The Natural History of Ireland—published in three volumes between 1849 and 1851.

He collected many rare species, including Bonaparte's gull and American bittern, that he kept in an extensive private bird museum. He observed, but did not collect, other rare birds such as the red kite.

In 1834 Thompson began studying the distribution of marine animals in space (depth range) and time (seasonality). His first research was with Edward Forbes conducting dredging in the Irish Sea. Other participants were Robert MacAndrew, George Barlee, John Gwyn Jeffreys and his fellow Irishmen Robert Ball, Edmund Getty and George Crawford Hyndman. In 1835 he travelled in France, Switzerland and Germany with Forbes. Then in 1841 he joined Forbes and Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt on the Beacon working in the Mediterranean and Aegean. The expedition lasted eighteen months and conducted more than one hundred dredging operations at depths varying from 1 to 130 fathoms, as well as shore-based studies. Thompson focused on the depth range of algae, his main collection of which is in the Ulster Museum herbarium and consists of five large albums[nb 1] containing specimens collected by Thompson himself, William Henry Harvey, Moon, D. Landsborough, Robert Ball, Thomas Coulter, George Crawford Hyndman, William McCalla and many others. His records are also reported by others such as Gifford (1853):- Griffithsia simplicifilum from "...Isle of Wight, in August, 1841, by Messers. R.Ball. and W. Thompson."[2]

George Dickie's Flora of Ulster contains records of Thompson's frequent botanical contributions and he is mentioned in William Baird's Natural History of British Entomostraca.

Later years

Thompson corresponded extensively on all aspects of natural history with naturalists in both Britain and Ireland, including with zoologist Thomas Bell who was at the heart of the English scientific establishment. As Thompson's reputation spread, information was passed to him by interested observers all over Ireland. However his health became poor around 1847 or 1848, when he was 42, and he suffered from heart trouble from 1847. In 1852 Thompson died of a heart attack in London[3] where he had been tended by his friends William Yarrell, author of British Birds, Edward Forbes, Edwin Lankester, of the Ray Society and George Busk. A planned fourth volume of his The Natural History of Ireland, focusing on invertebrates and non-avian vertebrates was left incomplete on his death. He died unmarried.

Excerpts from Thompson's letters and his notes were edited and published by James Ramsey Garrett s:Notes and papers relating to Belfast Natural History Society and Robert Patterson in 1856, four years after his death.

The Sea louse Lepeophtheirus thompsoni Baird, 1850 honours his name.

Works

Partial list from over eighty. A complete list is found in The Natural History of Ireland (see External Links).

Note.The pages Proceedings of the Zooloogical Society of London, The Magazine of Natural History and Annals & Magazine of Natural History all link to digitised versions of these works provided by Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Notes

  1. ^ Algae collection. Ulster Museum (BEL) catalogue numbers: F7953 — F8151, F8182 — F8393, F8394 — F8595, F8580 — F8847 and F8848 — F8937.

References

  1. ^ http://www.birdcheck.co.uk/main/previewpages/previewpage35.htm
  2. ^ Gifford, I. 1853. The Marine Botanist; an Introduction to the Study of the British Sea-weeds;... Third edition. Brighton, London.
  3. ^ Fairley, J.S. 1975. An Irish Beast Book. A Natural History of Ireland's Furred Wildlife. Blackstaff Press, Belfast

Further references

External links