Alfred Hart Everett

Alfred Hart Everett (11 October 1848 – 18 June 1898) was a British civil servant and administrator in Borneo as well as being a naturalist and natural history collector.

Career

Everett was born on Norfolk Island to British parents: George, the doctor at the penal colony, from Wiltshire, and Anna-Maria, from Jersey. They left in 1851 to return to England via Tasmania, so he was educated in England. In 1869 he went to Sarawak in north-western Borneo in order to collect natural history specimens. After two years there he entered the service of the Kingdom of Sarawak, as a Resident in the Baram district, under the White Rajahs. In 1878 and 1879 he was engaged by the Royal Society and British Association to explore 'the Caves of Borneo' in search of the remains of ancient man. The explorations were made around Bau and Niah but were unsuccessful in their primary aim[1] (although the orangutan jaw which later formed part of Piltdown Man may well have been one result).[2] In 1885 he was appointed the Rajah’s Consul to the Court of the Sultan of Brunei.[3][4] He later served in North Borneo in the administration of the British North Borneo Company.[5]

In 1891 Everett became a member of the British Ornithologists' Union.[6] He never married. He died in London.[3]

Zoological collecting

Everett collected for the Marquess of Tweedale and Walter Rothschild, as well as others. He is best known for the collections he made of birds and mammals in Borneo and the Philippines. He is commemorated in the names of several animals, including:

Birds
Mammals
Snakes
Frogs
Fish

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Royal Society
  2. ↑ New Scientist
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bernau.
  4. ↑ SARAWAK News (1885).
  5. ↑ National Museum Wales.
  6. ↑ The Ibis

Sources