Sir Bertram Coghill Alan Windle, (8 May 1858 – 14 February 1929) was a British

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

, administrator, archaeologist,

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosop ...

, educationalist and writer.

Biography

He was born at Mayfield Vicarage, in Staffordshire, where his father, the Reverend Samuel Allen Windle, a Church of England clergyman, was vicar. He attended

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, where he graduated B.A. in 1879. He also served as Librarian of the

University Philosophical Society The University Philosophical Society (UPS; ), commonly known as The Phil, is a student paper-reading and debating society in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1683 it is the oldest student, collegial and paper-reading society in t ...

in the 1877–78 session. In 1891 he was appointed dean of the medical faculty of

Queen's College, Birmingham Queen's College was a medical school in central Birmingham, England, and a predecessor college of the University of Birmingham. It was founded by surgeon William Sands Cox in 1825 as The Birmingham Medical School, a residential college for me ...

. Queen's College's medical faculty became the medical faculty of Mason Science College in the early 1890s, and then became the medical faculty of the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

in 1900. Windle was professor of anatomy and anthropology and first Dean of the Medical Faculty at

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

. He was a member of the Teachers′ Registration Council until he resigned in late 1902. In 1904 he accepted the presidency of Queen's College, Cork. He acted as president of the university (which became known as

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one o ...

in 1908) until 1918, when he moved to Canada. During his medical training days, Windle was an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

. He later converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Bowler, Peter J. (2001). ''Reconciling Science and Religion: The Debate in Early-Twentieth-Century Britain''. University of Chicago Press. p. 41. He was a critic of

Darwinism Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations tha ...

and took influence from St. George Jackson Mivart. Historian David N. Livingstone has noted that Windle favoured a Catholic version of neo-Lamarckism. Windle was a

vitalist Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...

. Historian

Peter J. Bowler Peter J. Bowler (born 8 October 1944) is a historian of biology who has written extensively on the history of evolutionary thought, the history of the environmental sciences, and on the history of genetics. His 1984 book, ''Evolution: The Hi ...

has written that Windle was "one of the few biologists to defend an outright vitalism."

Family

Windle married twice, first in 1886 to Madoline Hudson, and in 1901 to Edith Mary Nazer. He died in 1929 aged 71.

Honours

Windle was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1899. In 1909, he was made a knight of

St. Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...

by Pius X. In 1912, he was made a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are ...

and therefore granted the

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

'' sir''. He was knighted by

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 6 March 1912.

Works

''A Collection of Archaeological Pamphlets on Roman Remains"
(1878). * ''Congenital Malformations and Heredity'' (1888). * ''The Birmingham School of Medicine'' (1890).
''The Proportions of the Human Body''
(1892). * ''The Modern University'' (1892). * ''A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients'' (1894)
''A Handbook of Surface Anatomy and Landmarks''
(1896).
''Life in Early Britain''
(1897).
''Shakespeare's Country''
(1899).
''Vitalism and Scholasticism''
(1900). * ''The Malvern Country'' (1901).
''The Wessex of Thomas Hardy''
(1902).
''Chester''
(1904).
''Remains of the Prehistoric Age in England''
(1904).
''What is Life? A Study of Vitalism and Neo-Vitalism''
(1908).
''Facts and Theories''
(1912).
''A Century of Scientific Thought and Other Essays''
(1915).
''The Church and Science''
(1917)."Is Not Foe to Cause of Science,"
''The Toronto World'', 16 March 1920, p. 4.
''Science and Morals and other Essays''
(1919). * ''The Romans in Britain'' (1923).
''On Miracles and Some Other Matters''
(1924).
''Who's Who of the Oxford Movement''
(1926). * ''Evolution and Catholicity'' (1926). * ''The Catholic Church and its Reactions with Science'' (1927). * ''The Evolutionary Problem as it is Today'' (1927).
''Religions Past and Present''
(1928; 1st Pub. 1927). * ''History as it is Taught'' (1928). Selected articles
"Totemism and Exogamy,"
''The Dublin Review'' (1911). * "The National University and Development of the Intellectuality of the Nation," ''Journal of the Ivernian Society'' (1911).
"Nicolaus Stensen."
In: ''Twelve Catholic Men of Science'' (1912).
"Thomas Dwight."
In: ''Twelve Catholic Men of Science'' (1912).
"Darwin and the Theory of Natural Selection,"
''The Dublin Review'' (1912). * "The National University and the People", ''Journal of the Ivernian Society'' (1912).
"A Great Catholic Scientist: Joseph Van Beneden (1809–1894),"
''The Catholic World'' (1912–1913).
"Early Man,"
''The Dublin Review'' (1913). * "Some Recent Works on the Antiquity of Man," ''Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review'' (1914). * "The Latest Gospel of Science," ''Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review'' (1915).
"Miracles—Fifty Years Ago and Now"
''The Catholic World'' (1915).
"Prehistoric Art in Europe,"
''The Dublin Review'' (1917).
"Science in 'Bondage',"
''The Catholic World'' (1917).
"The Irish Convention: A Member's Afterthoughts,"
''The Living Age'' (1918).
"A Medical View of Miracles,"
''The Catholic World'' (1919–1920).
"From the Dark Ages,"
''The Catholic World'' (1921).
"Astrology,"
''The Catholic World'' (1922). * "Science Sees the Light," ''Commonweal'' (1924). * "Scott and the Oxford Movement," ''Commonweal'' (1924). * "Huxley and the Catholic Church," ''Commonweal'' (1925).
"Europe in the Age of Stone and Bronze."
In: ''Universal World History'' (1937). Miscellany
"Recent Developments in University Education in Great Britain,"
(1921).
''Introduction''
to the 1906 edition of '' The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne'', by

Gilbert White Gilbert White FRS (18 July 1720 – 26 June 1793) was a " parson-naturalist", a pioneering English naturalist, ecologist, and ornithologist. He is best known for his ''Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne''. Life White was born on ...

(1720–93).

References

External links

* * *
Works by Bertram Windle
at Hathi Trust {{DEFAULTSORT:Windle, Bertram 1858 births 1929 deaths Academics of the University of Birmingham Presidents of University College Cork English anatomists English archaeologists English Roman Catholics English writers Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Bachelor Knights of St. Gregory the Great Lamarckism Theistic evolutionists Vitalists