Thomas Nelson Annandale CIE

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 ...

(15 June 1876, 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 ...

– 10 April 1924, in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

) was a British

zoologist 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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

, and

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

. He was the founding director of the

Zoological Survey of India The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), founded on 1 July 1916 by Government of India Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, as premier Indian organisation in zoological research and studies to promote the survey, exploration and r ...

Life

The eldest son of

Thomas Annandale Thomas Annandale, FRCS FRSE (1838–1907) was a Scottish surgeon who conducted the first repair of the meniscus and the first successful removal of an acoustic neuroma, and introduced the pre-peritoneal approach to inguinal hernia repair. H ...

, the

regius professor A Regius Professor is a university Professor (highest academic rank), professor who has, or originally had, Monarchy of the United Kingdom, royal patronage or appointment. They are a unique feature of academia in the United Kingdom and Republic ...

of clinical surgery at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. His maternal grandfather was a publisher, William Nelson. Thomas was educated at

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 ...

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

where he studied under

Ray Lankester Sir Edwin Ray Lankester (15 May 1847 – 13 August 1929) was a British zoologist.New International Encyclopaedia. An invertebrate zoologist and evolutionary biologist, he held chairs at University College London and Oxford University. He was th ...

and

E. B. Tylor Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (2 October 18322 January 1917) was an English anthropologist, and professor of anthropology. Tylor's ideas typify 19th-century unilineal evolution, cultural evolutionism. In his works ''Primitive Culture'' (1871) an ...

(doing better in anthropology than zoology), and at the

where he studied anthropology, receiving a D.Sc. (1905). As a student he made visits to Iceland and the Faeroe Islands. In 1899 he travelled with

Herbert C. Robinson Herbert Christopher Robinson (4 November 1874 – 20 May 1929) was a British zoologist and ornithologist. He is principally known for conceiving and initiating the major ornithological reference '' The Birds of the Malay Peninsula''. Robinson ...

as part of the Skeat Expedition to the northern part of the Malay Peninsula. Annandale went to India in 1904 as Deputy Superintendent under A.W. Alcock of the Natural History Section of the Indian Museum. He was a deputy director at the

Indian Museum The Indian Museum in Central Kolkata, West Bengal, India, also referred to as the Imperial Museum at Calcutta in colonial-era texts, is the ninth oldest museum in the world, the oldest and largest museum in India as well as in Asia. It has rare ...

and in 1907 he succeeded Alcock to became its director. T_N_Annandale

He started the Records and Memoirs of the Indian Museum journals and in 1916, he became the first director of the

that he helped found. He was associated with many scientists of his time. This change placed an official equality with botany and geology and made more funds available for expeditions to various parts of India. He was interested in aspects beyond systematics including ecology. His suggestion of a problem in anthropology to

P. C. Mahalanobis Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis OBE, FNA, FASc, FRS (29 June 1893– 28 June 1972) was an Indian scientist and statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure, and for being one of the members of the first ...

led to the latters discovery of a technique that developed into the

multivariate Multivariate may refer to: In mathematics * Multivariable calculus * Multivariate function * Multivariate polynomial In computing * Multivariate cryptography * Multivariate division algorithm * Multivariate interpolation * Multivariate optical c ...

statistical techniques of today. He held the position of director until 1924 and was succeeded by

Robert Beresford Seymour Sewell Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Beresford Seymour Sewell CIE FRS FLS FZS (5 March 1880 – 11 February 1964) was a British military doctor who served with the Indian Medical Service and served as a Surgeon Naturalist in the marine surveys, specializin ...

(1880–1964). He was president of the 1924 session of the

Indian Science Congress Indian Science Congress Association(ISCA) is a premier scientific organisation of India with headquarters at Kolkata, West Bengal. The association started in the year 1914 in Kolkata and it meets annually in the first week of January. It has a ...

. The Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, with which he was closely associated during his service in India as Anthropological Secretary, Vice-President and as its President in 1923 instituted a triennial an Annandale Memorial Medal for contributions to anthropology in Asia. The first award was made to Dr

Fritz Sarasin Fritz Sarasin, full name Karl Friedrich Sarasin (3 December 1859 – 23 March 1942) was a Swiss naturalist. He was a second cousin of Paul Sarasin.Coan E. V., Kabat A. R. & Petit R. E. (15 February 2009)''2,400 years of malacology, 6th ed.'', ...

in 1928. In 1921, as his father had been, he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 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 ...

. He attended a party to celebrate his election shortly after an ulcer of the duodenum was noted. He also had a relapse of malaria and died shortly after at the age of 47. He was buried at the South Park Street Cemetery, but later his remains were moved to the Scottish Cemetery, Park Circus, Kolkata. His insect and spider collection is in the

, Calcutta. He was also noted for his work on the biology and anthropology of the Faroe Islands and Iceland about which he published ''The Faeroes and Iceland: a Study in Island Life'' in 1905. Working in the scientific field of herpetology, he described several new

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

lizards Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia althou ...

. He is commemorated in the scientific names of three species of reptiles: '' Cyrtodactylus annandalei'', '' Heosemys annandalii'', and ''

Kolpophis annandalei ''Hydrophis annandalei'', commonly known as Annandale's sea snake or the bighead sea snake, is a species of venomous snake in the subfamily Hydrophiinae of the family Elapidae. The species, which is sometimes placed in its own genus ''Kolpophis' ...

''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Annandale", pp. 9–10).

Bibliography

A partial list includes or a complete list, see ZSI (2010) *Annandale N, Robinson HC (1903).
Fasciculi Malayenses: Anthropological and Zoological Results of an Expedition to Perak and the Siamese Malay States
'. Liverpool. *Annandale N (1905
The Faroes and Iceland: studies in island life. Oxford:Clarendon Press
*Annandale N, Gravely FH (1914). "The limestone caves of Burma and the Malay Peninsula, Part II: The fauna of the caves". '' Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'' (ns) 9 (10) for 1913: 402–423. *Annandale N, Prashad B, Amin-ud-Din (1921). "The Aquatic and Amphibious Molluscs of Manipur". '' Records of the Indian Museum'' 22 (4)
528–632
*Annandale, N. & H.S. Rao. 1925. Materials for a revision of the recent Indian Limnaeidae (Mollusca Pulmonata). Records of the Indian Museum 27(3):137-189.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Annandale, Nelson 1876 births 1924 deaths Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Naturalists of British India People educated at Rugby School Scientists from Edinburgh Presidents of The Asiatic Society Scottish anthropologists Scottish curators Scottish entomologists Scottish zoologists Scientists from Kolkata

Life

Bibliography

See also

References

Further reading

External links