Dr William Elgin Swinton

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 ...

FLS (30 September 1900 in

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, ...

– 12 June 1994 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

), was a Scottish

paleontologist 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 ...

Life

William Swinton was born in

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

, the son of William Wilson Swinton, a clerk, and Rachel Cargill; he had one sibling, his younger sister Mary. He received his secondary education in

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

and

Glenalmond College Glenalmond College is a co-educational independent boarding school in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, for children aged between 12 and 18 years. It is situated on the River Almond near the village of Methven, about west of the city of Perth. T ...

. From 1917, he studied Sciences at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, graduating BSc in 1922. In 1920, he partook in an expedition to

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...

. Between 1922 and 1924, he was an assistant at the geology department of the

British Museum (Natural History) The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

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 ...

. Subsequently, Swinton was appointed as a

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of fossil

amphibians Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbore ...

reptiles Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the Class (biology), class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsid, sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, Squamata, squamates (lizar ...

and

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

. In 1933, he received his first doctorate (

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

) from the University of Glasgow. In 1932 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 Douglas Alexander Allan, Robert Campbell, Herbert Harold Read and

Thomas Matthew Finlay Dr Thomas Matthew Finlay FRSE EGS (17 September 1879–31 January 1954) was a Scottish geologist and palaeontologist. Life He was born at Sotrigarth in Sandwick, Shetland on 17 September 1879, the son of Frederick Souis Finlay (1852–1918) ...

. He enlisted in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

in 1937, and served during the entire

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

with Navy intelligence, eventually reaching the rank of

Lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...

. In the late 1950s he joined an expedition to climb

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

, but he failed to reach the summit. He received the Darwin Medal from the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1959. Two years later, he emigrated to Canada to take up a post in

Career at the British Museum (Natural History)

At the museum, Swinton was responsible for writing a large number of museum guides and books; the latter mainly popularizing works about paleontology. One of his most famous works was ''The Dinosaurs'' from 1934. These books were translated into many languages, making him influential in determining the public perception of

dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

in the middle of the twentieth century. However, his ideas on dinosaur anatomy, ecology and systematics were already old-fashioned in the 1930s, while his evolutionary concepts were formed during the eclipse of Darwinism. These problems became worse as the books were being reprinted for decades.

Career in Canada

Swinton left the BMNH in 1961, to accept a post as

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

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

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He combined this post with the directorship of the department of biology at the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

, and was soon appointed a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Canada judges to have "made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life ...

. In 1963, he became overall director of the ROM. Under his directorship, the museum gained both in public attendance and scientific prestige. His last appointment, until 1979, was as an extraordinary professor at

Queen's University Queen's or Queens University may refer to: *Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada *Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK **Queen's University of Belfast (UK Parliament constituency) (1918–1950) **Queen's University of Belfast ...

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

. He died in Toronto in 1994, 93 years old. Swinton remained unmarried and had no children.

Publications

* ''Monsters of Primeval Days'' (1931) * ''The Dinosaurs: a short history of a great group of extinct reptiles'' (1934)W.E. Swinton, ''The Dinosaurs'' (1934) at Internet Archive
/ref> * ''A Guide to the Fossil Birds'' (1934) * ''The Science of Living Things'' (1935) * ''The Corridor of Life'' (1948) * ''The Wonderful World of Prehistoric Animals'' (1952) * ''Fossil Amphibians and Reptiles'' (1954; 1958) * ''Fossil Birds'' (1958; 1965; British Museum (Natural History) Publication)- illustrated by Maurice Wilson * ''The Story of Prehistoric Animals'' (1961)- illustrated by Maurice Wilson * ''Digging for Dinosaurs'' (1962) * ''Dinosaurs'' (1962; 1964; 1967; 1969; 1974; British Museum (Natural History) Publication)- illustrated by Neave Parker * ''Dinosaurs of Canada'' (1965) * ''Giants: Past and Present'' (1966) * ''The Dinosaurs'' (1970)- illustrated by Neave Parker

Literature

Alan Charig Alan Jack Charig (1 July 1927 – 15 July 1997) was an English palaeontologist and writer who popularised his subject on television and in books at the start of the wave of interest in dinosaurs in the 1970s. Charig was, though, first and fo ...

(1994
"Obituary: Professor William Swinton"
''The Independent'' 28 June 1994. Accessed 15 Nov 2013. *R. Cocks, "William Elgin Swinton, 1900–1994", ''Museums Journal'', 94 (Aug 1994), 42. *Chris McGowan & Anita McConnell
"Swinton, William Elgin (1900–1994)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 15 Nov 2013. *Wolfgang Saxon (1994)

''New York Times'' 17 June 1994. Accessed 15 Nov 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swinton, William Elgin British palaeontologists 1900 births 1994 deaths People from Kirkcaldy Alumni of the University of Glasgow Employees of the Natural History Museum, London Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Scottish palaeontologists