Sir Arthur Landsborough Thomson

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

PZS CB LLD (8 October 1890 – 9 June 1977) was a Scottish medical researcher, mainly remembered as an amateur

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 ...

and ornithological author and acknowledged expert on bird migration.

Life

He was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

on 8 October 1890 the son of

John Arthur Thomson Sir John Arthur Thomson (8 July 1861 – 12 February 1933) was a Scottish naturalist who authored several notable books and was an expert on soft corals. Life He was born at Pilmuir east of East Saltoun, East Lothian, the second son of Is ...

and his wife Margaret Stewart. The family lived at 10 Kilmaurs Road. He was educated at the

Royal High School, Edinburgh The Royal High School (RHS) of Edinburgh is a co-educational school administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. The school was founded in 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. It serves 1,200 pupils drawn from four feeder primar ...

until 1899, when his father moved to

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

as Professor of Natural History at

Aberdeen University , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

. Arthur completed his education at

Grammar School. The family then lived at 15 Chanonry in Aberdeen. Arthur then studied Natural History (under his own father) at Aberdeen University, graduating MA in 1911. In 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 served as a Lt Colonel in the

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

. He received a Military OBE for his services. After the war (from 1919) he became a medical researcher and remained in this role until retiral in 1957. He was created a Commander of the Order of the Bath for this work in 1933 by King

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952. ...

and knighted by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

for this work in 1953. In 1962 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 ...

Buchanan Medal The Buchanan Medal is awarded by the Royal Society "in recognition of distinguished contribution to the medical sciences generally". The award was created in 1897 from a fund to the memory of London physician Sir George Buchanan (1831–1895). It ...

for services to medicine. In 1938 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were

James Ritchie James Ritchie may refer to: * James Ritchie (rugby union) (1907–1942), Scottish international rugby union player * James Ritchie (naturalist) (1882–1958), President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh * James Ritchie (Massachusetts politician) (1 ...

, Sir

David Wilkie (surgeon) Sir David Percival Dalbreck Wilkie, (5 November 1882 – 28 August 1938), known to friends and colleagues as DPD, was among the first of the new breed of professors of surgery appointed at a relatively young age to develop surgical research an ...

Charles Henry O'Donoghue Charles Henry O'Donoghue FRSE FZS (23 September 1885 – 28 November 1961) was an English zoologist who studied molluscs, a malacologist. His publications mostly deal with sea slugs and he also named a number of Bryozoans. A collection of over 700 ...

and

William Kalman William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

. He was president of the

British Ornithologists' Union The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds ("ornithology") and around the world, in order to understand their biology and to aid their conservation. The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, Henry ...

(BOU) from 1948 to 1955. He was President of the Zoological Society 1946 to 1950. He was Chairman of the

British Trust for Ornithology The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is an organisation founded in 1932 for the study of birds in the British Isles. The Prince of Wales has been patron since October 2020. History Beginnings In 1931 Max Nicholson wrote: In the United State ...

(BTO) from 1941 to 1947 and won the Trust's

Bernard Tucker Medal The Bernard Tucker Medal is awarded by the British Trust for Ornithology for services to ornithology. It is named in memory of Bernard Tucker, their first Secretary. It has been awarded since 1954, usually annually although there are some years ...

in 1957. In 1959 he was awarded the BOU's

Godman-Salvin Medal The Godman-Salvin Medal is a medal of the British Ornithologists' Union awarded "to an individual as a signal honour for distinguished ornithological work." It was instituted in 1919 in the memory of Frederick DuCane Godman and Osbert Salvin. M ...

. He died at Queen Mary's Hospital in

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip running north to south of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the U ...

on 9 June 1977.

Family

In 1920 he married Mary Moir Trail (d.1969). They did not have children. His paternal uncle was

James Stuart Thomson James Stuart Thomson FRSE FLS (1868–1932) was a 19th/20th century Scottish zoologist. He was an expert on the tortoise. Life He was born on 21 July 1868 at Pilmuir near East Saltoun in East Lothian, the youngest son and seventh child of ...

Publications

*''British Birds and Their Nests'' (1910) *''Problems of Bird Migration'' (1926) *''Bird Migration: A Short Account'' (1936) *''A New Dictionary of Birds'' (editor), 1964 *''Half a Century of Medical Research'' (1973)

References

External links

*
Britain's birds and their nests by A. Landsborough Thomson, hathitrust.org
1890 births 1977 deaths Scientists from Edinburgh People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Scottish ornithologists Presidents of the Zoological Society of London Scottish knights Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Presidents of the British Ornithologists' Union Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Officers of the Order of the British Empire Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders officers 20th-century British zoologists {{UK-ornithologist-stub