William Spotswood Green

William Spotswood Green (1847 – 22 April 1919^[1]) was an Irish naturalist, specialized on marine biology.

Born at Youghal and educated at Trinity College in Dublin,^[2] he was ordained a priest in 1873. Already before he left the services of the Church in 1890, he had worked on marine biology. In the 1880s, he participated as a leading member in several research expeditions sponsored by the Royal Irish Academy. In 1892, he became the Inspector of Fisheries. Combined with this work he was a Commissioner on the Congested Districts Board, where his intimate knowledge of human conditions in western Ireland was of great service. In 1914 he shook off the trammels of office, and retired to West Cove in Kerry. There he died five years later.^[3]

Green was also a member of the English Alpine Club and became a mountain climber well-known especially in Canada and New Zealand.^[4] In 1882, he attempted with two Swiss guides a first ascent of Mount Cook in New Zealand, but the party was forced back by bad weather shortly before they reached the top.^[5] In the late 1880s Green did survey work in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia.

Selected publications

• Green, W. S.: The High Alps of New Zealand. Or a Trip to the Glaciers of the Antipodes With an Ascent of Mount Cook. Macmillan & Co., London 1883.
• Green, W. S.: Among the Selkirk glaciers: being the account of a rough survey in the Rocky Mountain regions of British Columbia, Macmillan & Co., London 1890.
• Green, W. S.: "The Wrecks of the Spanish Armada on the Coast of Ireland", The Geographical Journal 27(5) (May 1906), pp. 429–451.

References