George Edward Dobson

George Edward Dobson FRS FLS FZS (4 September 1848 at Edgeworthstown, County Longford, Ireland – 26 November 1895) was an Irish zoologist, photographer and army surgeon. He took a special interest in bats, describing many new species, and some species have been named after him.

George Edward Dobson
Born4 September 1848 (1848-09-04)
Edgeworthstown, County Longford, Ireland
Died
26 November 1895 (1895-11-27) (aged 47)
NationalityIreland
Scientific career
Fieldszoology

Biography

Dobson was the eldest son of Parke Dobson [1][2] and was educated at the Royal School Enniskillen and then at Trinity College, Dublin.[1] He gained the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in 1866, Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and Master of Surgery in 1867 and Master of Arts in 1875.[1][2][3]

He became an army surgeon after 1867 serving in India and rose to the position of surgeon major.[4] In 1868 he visited the Andaman Islands, collecting zoological specimens for the Indian Museum along with Wood-Mason,[5] and in May 1872 he made ethnological and photographic studies of the Andamanese peoples.[6]

Around 1878, he became curator of the Royal Victoria Museum at Netley.[7]

Achievements

Dobson was an expert on small mammals, especially bats ( the Chiroptera) and Insectivora. He was a member of several scientific societies, the Royal Society (elected 1883), the Linnean Society of London and the Zoological Society of London. He was a corresponding member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and of the Biological Society of Washington.[8]

Works
  • Catalogue of the Chiroptera in Collection of British Museum (1878)
  • Monograph of the Asiatic Chiroptera (1876)
  • A Monograph of the Insectivora, systematic and anatomical (three parts, John Van Voorst, Londres, 1882-1890.

In addition Dobson also contributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica where he wrote the accounts about the vampyre bats, the moles and the shrews.[9]

References
  1. Proceedings of the Royal Society. Volume 59. p 15. Royal Society. 1896
  2. Obituary. British Medical Journal.1895 November 30; 2(1822): 1392
  3. Ormsby, Lambert Hepenstal (1888). Medical history of the Meath Hospital and County Dublin Infirmary. Dublin: Fannin and Co. p. 360.
  4. Bohan, Rob; Lunney, Linde (2009). "Dobson, George Edward". In McGuire, J.; Quinn, J. (eds.). Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. Ball, V. (1872). "Notes on the collection of birds made in the Andaman Islands by Asst. Surgeon G. E. Dobson during the months April and May, 1868". J. Asiat. Soc. Beng. 41 (2): 273–290.
  6. Dobson, G. E. (1875). "On the Andamans and Andamanese". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 4: 457–467. doi:10.2307/2840987. ISSN 0959-5295.
  7. Hugh Chisholm: The Encyclopædia Britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information (1910-1922) p. VIII
  8. New York Times Obituary: George Edward Dobson dead. 26 November 1895
  9. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1901). "Dobson, George Edward" . Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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