Sir
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...
Clive Forster Cooper, FRS (3 April 1880 – 23 August 1947) was an English
palaeontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
and Director of the
Cambridge University Museum of Zoology
The University Museum of Zoology is a museum of the University of Cambridge and part of the research community of the Department of Zoology. The public is welcome and admission is free (2018). The Museum of Zoology is in the David Attenborough ...
and
Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
in London. He was the first to describe ''
Paraceratherium
''Paraceratherium'' is an extinct genus of hornless rhinoceros. It is one of the largest terrestrial mammals that has existed and lived from the early to late Oligocene epoch (34–23 million years ago). The first fossils were discovered ...
'', also commonly known as ''Indricotherium'' or ''Baluchitherium'', the largest known land
mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
.
Early life
He was born on 3 April 1880 in Hampstead, London, the second child and only son of John Forster Cooper and his wife Mary Emily Miley. His maternal grandfather, Miles Miley, was an amateur botanist and naturalist, and encouraged Clive Forster-Cooper in his interest in natural history. He was educated at
Summer Fields School
Summer Fields is a fee-paying boys' independent day and boarding Preparatory school (UK), preparatory school in Summertown, Oxford. It was originally called Summerfield and used to have a subsidiary school, Summerfields, St Leonards-on-Sea (kn ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
,
Rugby School
Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.
Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...
.
['Forster-Cooper, Sir Clive', in ''Who Was Who''] In 1897 he went up to
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
, and took a BA in 1901 and
MA in 1904.
Early career
![The fauna and geography of the Maldive and Laccadive archipelagoes V1P2 Plate VI](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/The_fauna_and_geography_of_the_Maldive_and_Laccadive_archipelagoes_V1P2_Plate_VI.jpg)
In 1900, Forster Cooper travelled with
John Stanley Gardiner
John Stanley Gardiner (1872–1946) was a British zoologist.
Biography
Stanley, as he was known, was the younger son of John Jephson Gardiner and Sarah McTier. He was born in Jordanstown (Belfast) in 1872 – two years after his brother Arthur. ...
to the
Maldive
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...
and
Laccadive Islands
The Laccadive or Cannanore Islands are one of the three island subgroups in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep, India. It is the central subgroup of the Lakshadweep, separated from the Amindivi Islands subgroup roughly by the 11th parallel ...
to undertake collections and study the formation of coral reefs. From 1902 to 1903 he was naturalist to the North Seas Fisheries Commission Scientific Investigations, sailing around the Indian Ocean, taking soundings and collecting fauna and flora of the Seychelles.
In 1905 Forster-Cooper joined the
Percy Sladen
Walter Percy Sladen (30 June 1849 – 11 June 1900) was an English biologist who specialised in starfish.
The son of a wealthy leather merchant, Sladen was born near Halifax, Yorkshire on 30 June 1849. He was educated at Hipperholme Grammar Sc ...
expedition to the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
, with Stanley Gardiner. In 1906, he returned to Cambridge and continued to work on the collections made on the expeditions to the Indian Ocean. In 1907 he met
Dr C. W. Andrews, a specialist in the history of the elephant, at the British Museum of Natural History and became interested in fossil mammals. As a result of this meeting, in 1907 he joined Dr Andrews' collecting expedition to the
Fayum
Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...
. His increasing interest in vertebrate palaeontology led him to the American Museum of Natural History, New York, where he worked under
H. F. Osborn, then Professor of Zoology at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and Curator of the museum. He spent a year in America working closely Osborn, Matthew,
Walter W. Granger
Walter Willis Granger (November 7, 1872 – September 6, 1941) was an American vertebrate paleontologist who participated in important fossil explorations in the United States, Egypt, China and Mongolia.
Early life and career
Born in Midd ...
and
W. K. Gregory, studying the American collections of fossil mammals, and taking part in one of Granger's collecting expeditions to
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
.
He returned to Cambridge University, where he organized an expedition to collect large mammalian fauna, including specimens of the gigantic rhinoceros ''
Baluchitherium
''Paraceratherium'' is an extinct genus of hornless rhinoceros. It is one of the largest terrestrial mammals that has existed and lived from the early to late Oligocene epoch (34–23 million years ago). The first fossils were discovered ...
'', from the
Bugti
Bugti ( bal, بُگٹی ) is a Baloch tribe found in eastern Balochistan, Pakistan. , it was estimated to comprise over 180,000 people, mostly living in the Dera Bugti region of Pakistan. They are in turn divided into the Rahija,Marhita, Perozani, ...
beds of
Baluchistan
Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...
.
Work at the University of Cambridge
He became Director of the
Cambridge University Museum of Zoology
The University Museum of Zoology is a museum of the University of Cambridge and part of the research community of the Department of Zoology. The public is welcome and admission is free (2018). The Museum of Zoology is in the David Attenborough ...
in 1914, where he worked until 1938.
During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he worked on human animal parasites at the
School of Tropical Medicine in the
University of Liverpool
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
, which examined the action of quinine on malaria. On his return to Cambridge University after the war, he held a variety of posts in the Zoological Laboratory, including lecturer and
reader
A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to:
Computing and technology
* Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader
* Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application
* A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
in
Vertebrata
Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...
, and was a
fellow
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
of
Trinity Hall.
[ The museum archives hold five books of Foster Cooper's lecture notes.
]
Directorship of the Natural History Museum
Forster-Cooper was appointed Director of the Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
in London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
1938. A large part of its collection was preserved in highly flammable alcohol in glass jars, and during the Second World War, the museum was bombed a number of times. Forster Cooper oversaw the removal of much of the important parts of the collection to storage at Tring
Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...
.
He was elected to 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 1936 and knighted in 1946. He was also a foreign member of the New York Academy of Sciences
The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wit ...
and of the American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
.
He died on 23 August 1947.
Private life
On 25 July 1912 at Holy Trinity Church, Chelsea Borough, London County, Forster Cooper married Rosalie, eldest daughter of R. Tunstall-Smith, of Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, USA, by his first wife Emily Rosalie Lee Andrews (1860–1889). They had two sons and one daughter.[ His daughter served as a bomb spotter in London during World War II and later married an American GI and moved to the United States. He was ]knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
ed in 1946 and died on 23 August 1947.[ Lady Forster-Cooper died in ]St Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it merge ...
in 1965.
Publications
*1903. ''Fauna and geography of the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes''. Cambridge University Press. (Articles on Cephalochorda, Antipatharia and Nemertinea.)
*1907. (With J. S. Gardiner.) ''The Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean in 1905. Description of the expedition''. Trans. Linn. Soc. (Zoo.), 12, 1–55. Part II. Mauritius to Seychelles. Trans. Linn. Soc. (Zoo.), 12, 111–175.
*1910. ''Microchoerus erinaceus'', Wood. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 8, 6, 39–43.
*1911. ''Paraceratherium bugtiense, a new genus of Rhinocerotidae from the Bugti Hills of Baluchistan''. Preliminary notice. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 8, 8, 711–716.
*1913. ''Thaumastotherium osborni, a new genus of Perissodactyles from the Upper Oligocene deposits of the Bugti Hills of Baluchistan''. Preliminary notice. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 8, 12, 367–381.
*1913. ''New Anthracotheres and allied forms from Baluchistan''. Preliminary notice. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 8, 12, 514–522.
*1915. ''New genera and species of mammals from the Miocene deposits of Baluchistan''. Preliminary notice. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 8, 16, 404–410.
*1920. ''Chalicotheriodea from Baluchistan''. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. pp. 357–366.
*1922. ''Metamynodon bugtiensis, sp. n., from the Dera Bugti deposits of Baluchistan''. Preliminary notice. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 9, 9, 617.
*1922. ''Miocene Proboscidia from Baluchistan''. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. pp. 609–626.
*1922. ''Macrotherium salinum, sp. n., a new Chalicothere from India''. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 9, 10, 542.
*1922. ''A case of secondary adaptation in a tortoise''. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 9, 10, 155–157.
*1923. ''Note on a lower jaw of an African Elephant''. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 9, 12, 263–264.
*1923. ''Carnivora from the Dera Bugti deposits of Baluchistan''. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 9, 12, 259.
*1923. ''Baluchitherium osborni (? syn. Indricotherium turgaicum, Borrissyak)''. Phil. Trans. B, 212, 35–66.
*1924. ''On the skull and dentition of Paraceratherium bugtiense: a genus of aberrant rhinoceroses, from the Lower Miocene deposits of Dera Bugti''. Phil. Trans. B, 212, 369–394.
*1924. ''The Anthracotheriidae of the Dera Bugti deposits in Baluchistan''. Mem. Geol. Surv. India, Palaeontol. Indica, n.s. Mem. no. 2, 8, 1–59.
*1924. ''On remains of extinct Proboscidea in the Museums of Geology and Zoology in the University of Cambridge''. I. Elephas antiquus. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. (Biol. Soc.), 1, no. 2, 108–120.
*1925. ''Notes on the species of Ancodon from the Hempstead Beds''. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 9, 16, 113–138.
*1926. ''Brachyodus woodi, a new species from the Hempstead Beds''. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 9, 17, 337.
*1928. ''On the ear region of certain of the Chrysochloridae''. Phil. Trans. B, 216, 265–283.
*1928. ''Pseudamphimeryx hantonensis''. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 10, 2, 49–55.
*1928. (With C. W. Andrews.) ''On a specimen of Elephas antiquus from Upnor''. B.M.N.H. monograph.
*1932. ''The genus Hyracotherium. A revision and description of new specimens found in England''. Phil. Trans. B, 221, 431–448.
*1932. ''Mammalian remains from the Lower Eocene of the London Clay''. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 10, 9, 458–467.
*1934. ''The extinct rhinoceroses of Baluchistan''. Phil. Trans. 223, 569–616.
*1934. ''A note on the body scaling of Pterichthyodes''. Palaeobiol. 6, 25–29.
*1937. ''The Middle Devonian fish fauna of Achanarras''. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. 59, pt. 1, no. 7, 223–239.
Taxon named in his honor
*The red-bar anthias, '' Pseudanthias cooperi''.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forster Cooper, Clive
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
People educated at Rugby School
People educated at Summer Fields School
English palaeontologists
Directors of the Natural History Museum, London
1880 births
1947 deaths
People from Hampstead
Fellows of the Royal Society
Knights Bachelor
Scientists from London
20th-century British businesspeople