Robert John Lechmere Guppy (15 August 1836 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

– 5 August 1916 in San Fernando,

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

) was a British-born naturalist after whom the

guppy The guppy (), also known as millionfish and rainbow fish, is one of the world's most widely distributed tropical fish and one of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish species. It is a member of the family Poeciliidae and, like almost all ...

is named. He contributed much to the

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other Astronomical object, astronomical objects, the features or rock (geology), rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology ...

palaeontology 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 ...

and

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 kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...

of the West Indian region, in particular Trinidad. He was one of four children of Robert Guppy (1808-1894), a lawyer who went to Trinidad and became Mayor of San Fernando, and

Amelia Elizabeth Guppy Amelia Elizabeth Guppy or Amelia Parkinson (1808 – 1886) was an early artist and photographer from the United Kingdom. Life Amelia Elizabeth Guppy was born at Bullingham Court in Hertfordshire on 21 November 1808, the eldest child of wealthy ...

, a painter and one of the pioneers of photography, who navigated the

Orinoco River The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...

accompanied by only a few native Indians. "Lechmere", as he was called, was raised by his grandparents, Richard Parkinson and Lucy (née Lechmere, daughter of

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 Fr ...

officer

William Lechmere William Lechmere (1752 – 12 December 1815) was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Lechmere joined the navy and saw service during the Americ ...

, Vice-Admiral of the White), in

Kinnersley Castle Kinnersley Castle in Herefordshire, England, is one of the many marches castles along the Welsh Borders. The Castle of Kinnersley, on the A4112 east of Eardisley, was originally a stone structure, thought to have been built during the reign ...

, a 13th-century Norman castle in

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouths ...

. Richard Parkinson wanted Lechmere to take over the castle, a role in which he had no interest. Having come into an inheritance from another relative, he left England at the age of 18. He visited

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

and was

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

ed on the coast of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

in 1856. After living with the

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

for two years and mapping the area, Lechmere left New Zealand for Trinidad, where his parents were living. He married Alice Rostant, the daughter of local French planters and a descendant of the Counts of Rostant, French aristocrats who had fled to Trinidad to escape the French Revolution. Lechmere became Trinidad's Chief Inspector of Schools until his retirement in 1891. Although he had no formal training in the sciences Famous / infamous / interesting Guppys of the past
/ref> Lechmere wrote and published numerous articles on the

of the region. He served as President of the Scientific Association of Trinidad, as well as of the Royal Victoria Institute Board. He contributed about seventy memoirs or papers between 1863 and 1913. His special interest went to paleoconchology and Recent mollusks, especially the terrestrial and fluviatile species. Though sometimes rumoured to have been a clergyman, Lechmere Guppy was, in fact, an agnostic. Guppy discovered the Guppy fish in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

in 1866, and the fish was named ''Girardinus guppii'' in his honour by Albert C. L. G. Günther later that year. However, it was later discovered the fish had previously been described in America. Although ''Girardinus guppii'' is now considered a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linn ...

of ''Poecilia reticulata'', the common name "guppy" still remains.

Bibliography

(incomplete) * * * * 1872. ''Third series of additions to the Catalogue of the land and freshwater Molluska of Trinidad: with a revised list of all the species''. * 1873. "On some new Tertiary fossils from Jamaica". ''Proceedings of the Science Association of Trinidad'' 2(2): 72-88, London. * * * * * * * 1912. "Fossils from Springvale near

Couva Couva is an urban town (48,858 in 2011 census) in west-central Trinidad, south of Port of Spain and Chaguanas and north of San Fernando and Point Fortin. It is the capital and main urban centre of Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo, and the Greate ...

, Trinidad". Agricultural Society of Trinidad and Tobago, 2: London.

References

*
Obituary notice: Robert John Lechmere Guppy; Proc. Malac. Soc. Lond. 12: 140-201, pls. 8-10

Bibliography

References

Further reading