Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

Robert Beresford Seymour Sewell CIE FRS FLS FZS (5 March 1880 – 11 February 1964) was a British

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

who served with the

Indian Medical Service The Indian Medical Service (IMS) was a military medical service in British India, which also had some civilian functions. It served during the two World Wars, and remained in existence until the independence of India in 1947. Many of its officer ...

and served as a Surgeon Naturalist in the marine surveys, specializing on the taxonomy of copepods, and acted as an editor of ''

The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma ''The Fauna of British India'' (short title) with long titles including ''The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma'', and ''The Fauna of British India Including the Remainder of the Oriental Region'' is a series of scientific books th ...

'' 1933-1963.‘SEWELL, Lieut-Colonel Robert Beresford Seymour’, ''

Who Was Who ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It is a book, and also a CD-ROM and a website, giving information on influential people from around the world. Published annually as a book since 1849, it lists people who influence British life, according to i ...

'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 200
accessed 30 May 2011
/ref> Sewell was born in 1880 in Leamington, Warwickshire. His father was the reverend Arthur Sewell, and his mother was Mary Lee (née Waring). His grandfather was Robert Burleigh Sewell (1810–1872), who had a number of notable siblings, including

Richard Clarke Sewell Richard Clarke Sewell (18037 November 1864) was an English lawyer who later moved to Australia. Life Sewell, eldest son of Thomas Sewell of Newport, Isle of Wight, brother of James Edwards Sewell, warden of New College, Oxford, Henry Sewell, prem ...

(1803–1864), William Sewell (1804–1874),

Henry Sewell Henry Sewell (7 September 1807 – 14 May 1879) was a prominent 19th-century New Zealand politician. He was a notable campaigner for New Zealand self-government, and is generally regarded as having been the country's first premier (an office ...

(1807–1879),

James Edwards Sewell James Edwards Sewell (181029 January 1903) was an English academic, Warden of New College, Oxford, from 1860.SEWELL, Rev. James Edwards', in ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edition by Oxford University Press, December 2007, a ...

(1810–1903), and

Elizabeth Missing Sewell Elizabeth Missing Sewell (19 February 1815 – 17 August 1906) was an English author of religious and educational texts notable in the 19th century. As a home tutor, she devised a set of influential principles of education. Biography and writin ...

(1815–1906). He spent six months under

Raphael Weldon Walter Frank Raphael Weldon FRS (15 March 1860 – 13 April 1906), was an English evolutionary biologist and a founder of biometry. He was the joint founding editor of ''Biometrika'', with Francis Galton and Karl Pearson. Family Weldon was th ...

at the University College, London before joining Cambridge ( Christ's College) and in 1905,

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by Rahere (die ...

, London. He received a B.A. (Hons) from Cambridge in 1902 and qualified M.R.C.S. & L.R.C.P. in 1907. He was commissioned into the

as a Lieutenant 1 February 1908 and was promoted Captain 1 February 1911. His first positions were as medical officer with the 67th and 84th Punjabi Regiments before working as a malaria officer in the Sialkote Brigade. He served during the First World War in Mesopotamia and was Mentioned in Dispatches in the '' London Gazette'' 6 July 1917. He was promoted Major 1 August 1919 and Lieutenant-Colonel 1 August 1927. He also served as a professor at the Calcutta medical college (1911-1913) and from 1910 to 1925 held the position of Surgeon Naturalist on the marine surveys aboard the RIMS ''Investigator''. From 1925 he served as 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 ...

from 17 July 1925 to his retirement. He worked on fishes that could help control malaria along with B.L. Chaudhuri. He retired from the Indian Medical Service in 1933 and was appointed CIE. He was also made leader of the John Murray expedition into the Indian Ocean. He married Dorothy Dean (died 1931) in 1914. They had two daughters, one who became a nurse and the other a scholar of English literature. He was a freemason, having been initiated in 1912 in the Lodge Concordia at Calcutta.

References

Further reading