William Elford Leach
William Elford Leach FRS (
February 2,
1790 â€"
August 26,
1836) was an
English zoologist and
marine biologist.
Leach was born in
Plymouth, the son of a solicitor. At the age of twelve he went to school in
Exeter, studying
anatomy and
chemistry. By this time he was already collecting marine samples from Plymouth Sound and along the
Devon coast.At seventeen he began studying
medicine at
St Bartholomew's Hospital in
London, finishing his qualification at
Edinburgh University and
St Andrews University.
In 1813 Leach returned to his zoological interests and was employed as assistant librarian in the Zoological Department at the
British Museum. He set himself to sorting out the collections, many of which had been neglected since they had been left to the museum by
Hans Sloane. During his time there he was made assistant keeper of the natural history department and became an expert on
crustaceans and
mollusks. He also worked on
insects,
mammals and
birds.
Leach's nomenclature was a little eccentric - he named twenty-seven species after his friend
John Cranch, who had collected the
species in
Africa and later died on
HMS Congo. In 1818 he named nine
genera after Caroline or anagrams of that name, possibly after his mistress.
In 1821 he suffered a nervous breakdown due to overwork and resigned from the museum in March 1822. His elder sister took him to continental
Europe to convalesce, and they travelled through
France,
Italy and
Greece. He died of
cholera in the Palazzo San Sebastiano, near Tortona, north of
Genoa.
The
Leach's Storm-petrel was named after him by
Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1820, without him being aware that it had previously been described by Vieillot. A specimen of this bird had been purchased by Leach on behalf of the British Museum for £5 15s in the sale of the collection of
William Bullock in 1819. At the same sale he also bought a
Great Auk and an egg for just over £16.
The
Blue-winged Kookaburra Dacelo leachii was also named for him.
Leach's written works during his time at the British Museum include the following:
Zoological Miscellany (1814-1817)
Monograph on the British Crabs, Lobsters, Prawns and other Crustacea with pendunculated eyes (1815-1817)
Systematic catalogue of the Specimens of the Indigenous Mammalia and Birds that are preserved at the British Museum (1816)
Synopsis of the Mollusca of Great Britain (circulated 1820, but not published until 1852).
*Barbara and Richard Mearns -
Biographies for Birdwatchers ISBN 0124874223
