Hugh Edwin Strickland (2 March 1811 – 14 September 1853) was an English
geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, alt ...
,
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
,
naturalist and
systematist. Through the British Association, he proposed a series of rules for the nomenclature of organisms in zoology, known as the Strickland Code, that was a precursor of later codes for nomenclature.
Biography
Strickland was born at
Reighton, in the
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire t ...
. He was the second son of
Henry Eustatius Strickland of
Apperley, Gloucestershire, by his wife Mary, daughter of
Edmund Cartwright, inventor of the
power loom
A power loom is a mechanized loom, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. The first power loom was designed in 1786 by Edmund Cartwright and first built that same yea ...
, and grandson of
Sir George Strickland, bart., of
Boynton. In 1827 he was sent as a pupil to
Thomas Arnold
Thomas Arnold (13 June 1795 – 12 June 1842) was an English educator and historian. He was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement. As headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841, he introduced several reforms that were wid ...
(1795–1842), a family friend.
As a boy he acquired a taste for natural history which dominated his life. He received his early education from private tutors and in 1829 entered
Oriel College, Oxford
Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, ...
. He attended the anatomical lectures of
John Kidd and the geological lectures of
William Buckland
William Buckland DD, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and palaeontologist.
Buckland wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named ' ...
and he became interested both in
zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...
and
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
. He graduated B.A. in 1831, and proceeded to M.A. in the following year. He married Catherine Dorcas Maule Jardine, the daughter of
Sir William Jardine
Sir William Jardine, 7th Baronet of Applegarth FRS FRSE FLS FSA (23 February 1800 – 21 November 1874) was a Scottish naturalist. He is known for his editing of a long series of natural history books, ''The Naturalist's Library''.
Life a ...
, in 1845. She drew many of the illustrations for ''Illustrations to Ornithology'' (1825–1843), using her initials, CDMS (her sister Helen was also an illustrator).
Returning to his home at Cracombe House, near
Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury ( ) is a medieval market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town has significant history in the Wars of the Roses and grew since the building of Tewkesbury Abbey. It stands at the confluence of the Ri ...
, he began to study the geology of the
Vale of Evesham, communicating papers to the
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows.
Fe ...
(1833–1834). He also gave much attention to ornithology. Becoming acquainted with
Roderick Murchison
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet, (19 February 1792 – 22 October 1871) was a Scottish geologist who served as director-general of the British Geological Survey from 1855 until his death in 1871. He is noted for investigating and d ...
he was introduced to
William Hamilton (1805–1867) and accompanied him in 1835 on a journey through
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
, the Thracian
Bosporus
The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern T ...
and the island of
Zante. Hamilton afterwards published the results of this journey and of his subsequent excursion to
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ...
in ''Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus and Armenia'' (1842).
After his return in 1836 Strickland brought before the Geological Society several papers on the geology of the districts he had visited in southern Europe and Asia. He also described in detail the "''drift deposits in the counties of Worcester and Warwick, drawing particular attention to the fluviatile deposits of Cropthorne in which remains of
hippopotamus
The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two exta ...
, &c., were found''". With Murchison he read before the Geological Society an important paper ''On the Upper Formations of the New Red Sandstone System in
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
, Worcestershire and
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
'' (Trans. Geol. Soc., 1840). In other papers he described the
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...
Bone-bed near
Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury ( ) is a medieval market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town has significant history in the Wars of the Roses and grew since the building of Tewkesbury Abbey. It stands at the confluence of the Ri ...
and the
Ludlow
Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which ...
Bone-bed of
Woolhope
Woolhope is a village and civil parish in the English county of Herefordshire. The population of the civil parish was 486 at the 2011 census. The civil parish includes the hamlet of Broadmoor Common to the west of the village (and a nature rese ...
. He was author likewise of
ornithological memoirs communicated to the
Zoological Society, the Annals and Magazine of Natural History and the
British Association
The British Science Association (BSA) is a Charitable organization, charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Scien ...
. He also drew up the report, in 1842, of a committee appointed by the British Association to consider the rules of
zoological nomenclature
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the Int ...
. This report is the earliest formal codification of the
principle of priority
270px, '' Valid name (zoology)">valid name.
Priority is a fundamental principle of modern botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature. Essentially, it is the principle of recognising the first valid application of a name to a plant or an ...
, which represents the fundamental guiding precept that preserves the stability of biological nomenclature.
He was one of the founders of the
Ray Society, suggested in 1843 and established in 1844, the object being the publication of works on natural history which could not be undertaken by scientific societies or by publishers. For this society Strickland corrected, enlarged and edited the manuscript of
Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history.
Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...
for the ''Bibliographia Zoologiae et Geologiae'' (1848). In 1845 he edited with J. Buckman a second and enlarged edition of Murchison's ''Outline of the Geology of the neighbourhood of
Cheltenham''. In 1846 he settled at
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 Un ...
, and two years later he issued in conjunction with
Alexander Gordon Melville a work on ''The
Dodo
The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...
and its kindred'' (1848).
In 1850 he was appointed deputy reader in geology at Oxford during the illness of Buckland, and in 1852 he was elected 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, r ...
. In the following year, after attending the meeting of the British Association at
Hull
Hull may refer to:
Structures
* Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle
* Fuselage, of an aircraft
* Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds
* Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship
* Submarine hull
Mathematics
* Affine hull, in affi ...
, he went to examine the geological strata visible in cuttings on the
Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway near
Retford
Retford (), also known as East Retford, is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England, and one of the oldest English market towns having been granted its first charter in 1105. It lies on the River Idle and the Chesterfie ...
. There he was knocked down and killed by a train; on a double track he stepped out of the way of a goods train and was hit by an express coming in the opposite direction. He was buried at
Deerhurst church near Tewkesbury, where a memorial window was erected.
His ''Ornithological Synonyms'' was published in 1855. His collection of 6,000 birds went to
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...
in 1867. Whilst travelling in 1835 he discovered the
olive-tree warbler on the island of
Zante, and the
cinereous bunting in the vicinity of
İzmir
İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...
in western
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
.
His name was honoured in the name of a bird endemic to N. Borneo, ''
Copsychus stricklandii
The white-crowned shama (''Copsychus stricklandii'') is a bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It is endemic to the Southeast Asian island of Borneo.
Taxonomy
It is closely related to the white-rumped shama (''Copsychus malabaricus''), and i ...
'' Motley & Dillwyn (1855) as well as the brachiopod genus ''Stricklandia''.
[Fortey, Richard (2016) ''The Wood for the Trees: The Long View of Nature from a Small Wood'', William Collins, London () p. 233]
References
*
External links
The Correspondence of Hugh Edwin Strickland*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strickland, Hugh Edwin
1811 births
1853 deaths
People from Bridlington
English zoologists
19th-century British geologists
British ornithologists
Fellows of the Royal Society
Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford
Railway accident deaths in England