Matthew William Kemble Connolly (13 February 1872 – 24 February 1947) was a British army officer and

malacologist Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

Biography

Connolly was born at Bath, the son of Vice-Admiral Matthew Connolly, R.N., and his wife Harriet Kemble. He was educated at

Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to: Australia * Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ** Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia China * Haileybury International School, an internatio ...

and trained at the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

. He was commissioned into the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

on 7 November 1891. He was promoted

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 26 July 1899. He was appointed

adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of human resources in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed forces as a non-commission ...

of the 2nd Volunteer Battalion,

Royal Warwickshire Regiment The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, previously titled the 6th Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. The regiment saw service in many conflicts and wars, including the Second Boer War ...

on 23 April 1900, and held that position until 23 April 1905, and returned to regimental duties on 6 May. From this point much of his service was in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

.R. W. (1949
"Obituary: Matthew William Kemble Connolly, 1872–1947"
''Proceedings of the Malacological Society'' 28: 2. He was promoted

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on 9 July 1910. While in South Africa, Connolly took an interest in minerals and then started observing snails in the field. He took up malacology and

conchology Conchology () is the study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of molluscs; however, malacology is the study of molluscs as whole organisms, whereas conchology is confined to the study of their shells. It includ ...

seriously and became an authority on the land and freshwater molluscs of South Africa. On 11 December 1912, he went onto the

half-pay Half-pay (h.p.) was a term used in the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries to refer to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service. Past usage United Kingdom In the En ...

list as a result of ill-health arising from rheumatic fever. He retired from the army on 2 May 1914. During

World War I 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 was employed at the army record office. He became a friend of

Edgar Albert Smith Edgar Albert Smith (29 November 1847 – 22 July 1916) was a British zoologist, a malacologist. His father was Frederick Smith, a well-known entomologist, and assistant keeper of zoology in the British Museum, Bloomsbury. Edgar Albert Smith ...

, who was keeper of molluscs at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

and who recognised his worth. In 1918, Connolly became an honorary scientific worker in the natural history department at

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...

(now 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. ...

) and continued to work there until December 1946 in spite of increasing lameness. Connolly published some fifty papers on molluscs between 1910 and 1945. He was a member of the Malacological Society from 1908 to 1938 and was president of the

Conchological Society The Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland is a British-based society concerned with the study of molluscs and their shells. It was founded in 1876, and is one of the oldest such societies in the world. It is a registered UK charity ( ...

in 1930. Connolly was also a connoisseur of wine and an expert on

potted meat Potted meat is a form of traditional food preservation in which hot cooked meat is placed in a pot, tightly packed to exclude air, and then covered with hot fat. As the fat cools, it hardens and forms an airtight seal, preventing some spoilage by ...

s and wrote a highly regarded pamphlet on the subject. Connolly married Muriel Maud Vernon, daughter of Colonel Edward Vernon, J.P., D.L., of

Clontarf Castle Clontarf Castle ( ga, Caisleán Chluain Tarbh) is a much-modernised castle, dating to 1837, in Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland, an area famous as a key location of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. There has been a castle on the site since 1172. In mod ...

, Co. Dublin (1838–1913), whom he met while serving in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. They lived at The Lock House,

Deepcut Deepcut is a village in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. The nearest towns are Camberley, Surrey ( to the north) and Farnborough, Hampshire (3 mi to the west). Deepcut is named af ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

on the

Basingstoke Canal The Basingstoke Canal is an English canal, completed in 1794, built to connect Basingstoke with the River Thames at Weybridge via the Wey Navigation. From Basingstoke, the canal passes through or near Greywell, North Warnborough, Odiham, Dogm ...

, although Connolly was based mostly in

. Their only child was the writer and critic

Cyril Connolly Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine '' Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote '' Enemies of Promise'' (1938), which comb ...

.Jeremy Lewis ''Cyril Connolly: A Life'' Jonathan Cape 1997 Tom Pain, a younger researcher and friend of Connolly, recalled being introduced to Cyril Connolly by his father with the words "this is my son – he is a fool!"

Bibliography and described species

Many specimens including

types Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Typ ...

from collection by Matthew William Kemble Connolly are in Collection of molluscs of Manchester Museum and also in the

, London and the

National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, Cardiff. Taxa newly described by Matthew William Kemble Connolly are listed below these works: * Connolly M. (1910) "A survey of the South-African Stenogyrinae, with descriptions of several new species". ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (8th series)6: 249–272; pl. 6 and one text fig. * Connolly M. (1919a) "Description of four new South African land-shells, belonging to the subfamily Stenogyrinae". ''Records of the Albany Museum'' 3: 216–219; text figs. * Connolly M. (1919b) "On '' Opeas strigile'' (M. & P.) and its allies". ''Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London'' 13: 142–144; 4 text figs. * Connolly M. (1922a) "Diagnoses of new species of non-marine Mollusca from Portuguese Southeast Africa". ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (9th series)10: 113–122. * Connolly M. (1922b) "Notes on African non-marine Mollusca, with descriptions of many new species". ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (9th series)10: 485–517; pl. 14. * Connolly M. (1922
"The non-marine mollusca of Portuguese East Africa"
''Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa'', 18–220
163
** ''

Rhachistia ''Rhachistia'' is a genus of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Cerastidae. MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Rhachistia Connolly, 1925. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at ...

'' Connolly, 1922 * Connolly M. (1923a) "Notes on African non-marine Mollusca, with descriptions of many new species (cont.)". ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (9th series) 11: 345–362; pl. 1 and 3 text figs. ** '' Subuliniscus adjacens'' Connolly, 1923 * Connolly M. (1923b) "Notes on African non-marine Mollusca, with descriptions of many new species (cont.)". ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (9th series) 12: 633–659; pl. 19. * Connolly M. (1925a) "The non-marine mollusca of Portuguese East Africa". ''Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa'' 12: 105–220; pls. 4–8. * Connolly M. (1925b) "Notes on African non-marine mollusca, with descriptions of many new species (continued)". ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (9th series) 15: 457–479; pl. 28 and 8 text figs. * Connolly M. (1927) "Report on a small collection of Mollusca, made by Dr. G.D. Hale Carpenter, at Nagichot District, S.E. Sudan. With appendix: On '' Trichotoxon roccatii'', by H. Watson". ''Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London'' 17: 170–174; text figs. * Connolly M. (1928) "The Non-Marine Mollusca of Sierra Leone". ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (10th series) 1: 529–551; pl. 18 and 10 text figs. * Connolly M. (1929) "New non-marine mollusca from South Africa". ''Annals of the Natal Museum'' 6(2): 219–244; pl. 14 and 8 text figs. * Connolly M. (1929). ''

Annals and Magazine of Natural History The ''Journal of Natural History'' is a scientific journal published by Taylor & Francis focusing on entomology and zoology. The journal was established in 1841 under the name ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.'') an ...

'' (10)3: 177. ** ''

Sierraia ''Sierraia'' is a genus of freshwater snails with an operculum (gastropod), operculum, aquatic animal, aquatic prosobranch gastropod mollusks in the family Bithyniidae. Species Species in the genus ''Sierraia'' include: * ''Sierraia expansilabr ...

'' Connolly, 1929 * Connolly M. (1930) "Descriptions of new mollusca from central Africa, with notes on other species". ''Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London'' 19: 37–48; pl. 6 and text figs. * Connolly M. (1931) "Descriptions of new non-marine Mollusca from North, South, and Central Africa, with notes on other species". ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (10th series) 8: 305–338; pls. 10–13 and 7 text figs. * '' Trachycystis clifdeni'' Connolly, 1932 * Connolly M. (1938) "An apparently undescribed species of '' Potadoma'' Swainson". ''Journal of Conchology'' 21: 8; text fig. * Connolly M. (1939
"A monographic survey of South African non-marine molluscs"
''Annals of the South African Museum'' 33: 1–660; pls. 1–19 and 58 text figs.

Taxa named after him

* '' Lanistes connollyi''

Pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...

, 1954Pain T. (1954). "New freshwater Gastropod Mollusks of the African genus ''Lanistes''". ''Breviora'' 31: 1–4, fig. 1–2.

References

This article incorporates CC-BY-3.0 text from the reference.

Biography

Bibliography and described species

Taxa named after him

References

Further reading