Frank Evers Beddard FRS FRSE (19 June 1858 – 14 July 1925) was an English zoologist. He became a leading authority on annelids, including earthworms. He won the Linnean Medal in 1916 for his book on oligochaetes.

Frank Evers Beddard

Born(1858-06-19)19 June 1858
Dudley, England
Died14 July 1925(1925-07-14) (aged 67)
Alma materNew College, Oxford
Known forAnnelids
Animal coloration
AwardsLinnean Medal (1916)
Scientific career
FieldsAnnelid Zoology
InstitutionsZoological Society of London
Author abbrev. (zoology)F.E.B.

Life edit

Beddard was born in Dudley, Worcestershire the son of John Beddard. He was educated at Harrow and New College, Oxford. He died at West Hampstead in London.[1] In 1881, aged 22, he lodged at 81a Princes Street, Edinburgh at Anna Campbell's lodging house. His fellow lodger was the Scottish biologist and town planner Patrick Geddes.[2]

Career edit

Beddard was naturalist to the Challenger Expedition Commission from 1882 to 1884. In 1884 he was appointed prosector, responsible for preparing dissections of animals that had died, at the Zoological Society of London, following the death of William Alexander Forbes.[3]

Beddard became lecturer in biology at Guy's Hospital, examiner in zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of London, and lecturer in morphology at Oxford University.

Apart from his publications on wide-ranging topics in zoology, such as Isopoda,[4] Mammalia,[5] ornithology,[6] zoogeography[7] and animal coloration,[8] Beddard became particularly noted as an authority on the annelids,[9] publishing two books on the group and contributing articles on earthworms, leeches and also on another phylum of worms, the Nematoda for the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, where he used the initials "F.E.B.". Coles cites W.H. Hudson's 1919 The book of a naturalist, page 347:[9]

One evening I was with Mr Frank E. Beddard at his club and taking advantage of the occasion, asked him some question about earthworms, he being the greatest authority in the universe on the subject.

Beddard contributed biographies of zoologists William Henry Flower and John Anderson for the Dictionary of National Biography. He was the author of volume 10 (Mammalia) of the Cambridge Natural History.[5]

Legacy edit

Beddard's olingo (Pocock, 1921) is named after him.[3]

Works edit

 
Plate III, "Group of animals exhibiting warning coloration", from Animal coloration (1892)

Books edit

  • Report on the Isopoda collected by H. M. S. Challenger during the years 1873–76 HMSO, 1884.
  • Animal Coloration: an account of the principal facts and theories relating to the colours and markings of animals Swan Sonnenschein, 1892.
  • A Text-book of Zoogeography. Cambridge University Press, 1895.
  • A Monograph of the Order of Oligochaeta. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1895.
  • A Book of Whales. John Murray, 1895.
  • The Cambridge natural history. Vol 10 Mammalia. Macmillan, 1895.
  • Elementary Zoology. Longmans, Green, 1898.
  • The Structure and Classification of Birds Longmans, Green, 1898.
  • Mammalia, Macmillan, 1902.
  • Natural History in Zoological Gardens: Being Some Account of Vertebrated Animals, Archibald Constable, 1905.
  • Earthworms and Their Allies. Cambridge University Press, 1912.

Chapters edit

  • Hudson, W.H. and Beddard, Frank E. British Birds. Chapter on structure and classification. First edition 1898. Longmans, Green, 1921.

References edit

  1. ^ "Dr. F. E. Beddard". The Times. No. 44015. London. 16 July 1925. p. 20.
  2. ^ http://www.ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk, 1881 census of Scotland, 685/2 102 page 1.
  3. ^ a b Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2009). The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals. JHU Press. p. 33. ISBN 9780801895333.
  4. ^ Beddard, Frank Evers. Report on the Isopoda collected by H. M. S. Challenger during the years 1873–76 (Volume pt 11, 12), HMSO, 1884
  5. ^ a b Beddard, Frank Evers. (Edit: Harmer, Sir Sidney Frederic; Shipley, Arthur Everett, Gadow, Hans) The Cambridge Natural History, Volume 10, Mammalia. Macmillan Company 1902
  6. ^ Beddard, Frank Evers. The structure and classification of birds. Longmans, Green, 1898
  7. ^ Beddard, Frank Evers. A text-book of zoogeography. Cambridge University Press 1895
  8. ^ Beddard, Frank Evers. Animal coloration; an account of the principal facts and theories relating to the colours and markings of animals. London, S. Sonnenschein & co.; New York, Macmillan, 1892
  9. ^ a b Coles, John W. Bibliography of the contributions to the study of the Annelida by Frank Evers Beddard with details of the material reported. Archives of Natural History. Volume 10, Page 273-315, DOI 10.3366/anh.1981.10.2.273, ISSN 0260-9541, 1981.

External links edit