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The British Museum Ruwenzori Expeditions
The British Museum Ruwenzori expeditions took place in 1905–1906, 1934-1935 and during the summer of 1952. The three expeditions to the Ruwenzori were organised by the British Museum. The first, in 1905–1906, mainly operated in the lower part of the Mubuku valley, the 1934-1935 expedition focused on the eastern side of the massif and the expedition during the summer of 1952 was led with a geological focus. British Museum Ruwenzori expedition 1905-1906 Henry Morton Stanley was the first European to recognise that the Ruwenzori was a snow covered range. Soon after the publication of his observations in 1888, a view developed amongst naturalists that "the isolated position and the great altitude attained by the forest-clad, snow-capped peaks, rising to nearly 17,000 feet, made it certain that a rich and peculiar fauna and flora must await the investigation of the explorer". William Robert Ogilvie-Grant, an ornithologist in the British Museum was keen to investigate this question ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rwenzori Mountains
The Rwenzori (also known as the Ruwenzori, Rwenzururu or Rwenjura) are a range of mountains in eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The highest peak of the Ruwenzori reaches , and the range's upper regions are permanently snow-capped and glaciated. Rivers fed by mountain streams form one of the sources of the Nile. Because of this, European explorers linked the Ruwenzori with the legendary Mountains of the Moon, claimed by the Greek scholar Ptolemy as the source of the Nile. Virunga National Park in eastern DR Congo and Rwenzori Mountains National Park in southwestern Uganda are located within the range. Geology The mountains formed about three million years ago in the late Pliocene epoch and are the result of an uplifted block of crystalline rocks including gneiss, amphibolite, granite and quartzite. The Rwenzori mountains are the highest non-volcanic, non- orogenic mountains in the world. This upli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molluscs
Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The number of additional fossil species is estimated between 60,000 and 100,000, and the proportion of undescribed species is very high. Many taxa remain poorly studied. Molluscs are the largest marine biology, marine phylum, comprising about 23% of all the named marine organisms. They are highly diverse, not just in size and anatomical structure, but also in behaviour and habitat, as numerous groups are freshwater mollusc, freshwater and even terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial species. The phylum is typically divided into 7 or 8 taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class (biology), classes, of which two are entirely extinct. Cephalopod molluscs, such as squid, cuttlefish, and octopuses, are among the most neurobiology, neurologi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Herbert Elliot Jackson
Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Herbert Elliot Jackson (12 January 1903 – 22 May 1968) was an English coffee farmer in Kenya. He served as an officer in the British Army during the Second World War, seeing service with the King's African Rifles and as a military administrator in British Somaliland. Jackson served in the Kenyan colonial administration during the Mau Mau Rebellion. Jackson was also a keen entomologist best known for his studies of African butterflies. He amassed the largest collection of native butterflies in Africa, that was donated to museums across the world. Jackson was murdered at his farm at Kitale in 1968. Early life Jackson was born in Dorset, England, on 12 January 1903, the son of Brigadier-General Herbert Kendall Jackson. He was educated at Wellington College and his father intended for Jackson to follow him into the army. Jackson instead chose a different career and attended Harper Adams Agricultural College, Shropshire. He visited Kenya briefly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Gibbins
Ernest Gerald Gibbins (1900 – 3 November 1942) was a British entomologist who worked on insects of medical importance. He described 26 new species. While researching tropical diseases in Uganda, he was speared to death by tribesmen who believed that he would use their blood samples for witchcraft. Background Ernest Gerald Gibbins was born in Liverpool, England. Despite his early enthusiasm for natural history, he was not formally educated in biology. At Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, part of the University of Liverpool, W.S. Patton and D.B. Blacklock noticed his devotion. They became his mentors and in 1930, they enabled him to take part in an entomological course. Gibbins remained closely tied to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Career During the interwar period, Gibbins was recruited to the Colonial Service. Along with other entomologists and field officers, he was sent to serve in the East Africa Protectorate. Gibbins was assigned to field and laborat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Synge
Patrick Millington Synge (1910-1982) was a British botanist, writer and plant hunter. Career He was a graduate of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was a member of the Oxford University Expedition to Sarawak in 1932. His experiences during the British Museum Ruwenzori expedition of 1934-35 to East Africa, led by George Taylor, later Director at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew are documented in his first book ''Mountains of the Moon''. He fought in the Intelligence Corps in the Second World War between 1943 and 1945, gaining the rank of Major. He was editor of the ''Horticultural Journal'' between 1945 and 1970 and was awarded the Victoria Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1971. His many expeditions, including those to Nepal with Colville Barclay and Turkey with Rear-Admiral Paul Furse were documented in his 1973 book ''In Search of Flowers''. He died in 1982. Publications * ''Mountains of the Moon: an expedition to the Equatorial Mountains of Africa''. Drummond/ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Roden Buxton
David Roden Buxton FSA (26 February 1910 – 17 November 2003) was an entomologist and employee of the British Council. He is best known for his books on Russian architecture, the ancient churches of Ethiopia, and the wooden churches of Eastern Europe. Early life and education Buxton was born in 1910 in London to Charles Roden Buxton and Dorothy Frances Buxton (née Jebb). His parents met when they were both students at Cambridge University; his father Charles studied Classics at Trinity College while his mother, Dorothy Jebb, read for a degree in Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Newnham College. They married in 1904 in Cambridge before settling in London. Buxton’s father Charles was a lawyer and a parliamentarian, firstly as a Liberal MP then as a member of the Labour party. Both Charles and Dorothy were members of the Society of Friends, and Dorothy, described as a humanitarian and social activist, co-founded the Save the Children Fund with her sister Eglantyne Jebb. Dav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Taylor (botanist)
Sir George Taylor, FRS FRSE FLS LLD (15 February 1904, in Edinburgh – 13 November 1993, in Dunbar) was a Scottish botanist. Life He was born at 5 West Preston Street, the son of George William Taylor, a painter and decorator, and his wife, Jane Sloan. He was educated at Boroughmuir High School. By 1911, his father had gone into partnership as a tailor, with premises "Taylor and Thomson" at 39 George IV Bridge. George then began private education at George Heriot's School. He studied Biology at Edinburgh University graduating BSc in 1926. He did field studies in Rhodesia and South Africa 1927/28 and then continued as a postgraduate gaining a DSc in 1928. Following this he immediately obtained a position as an assistant at the British Museum in London. He was co-leader of the East African British Museum Ruwenzori expedition in 1934-35. In 1938 he joined Frank Ludlow and George Sherriff in a trip to Bhutan. Staying at the British Museum for most of his working life he becam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Wallace Edwards
Frederick Wallace Edwards FRS (28 November 1888 in Fletton, Peterborough – 15 November 1940 in London), was an English entomologist. Edwards was known in the field of entomology for his work on Diptera. Edwards worked in the British Museum (Natural History) which contains his collections made on his expeditions to Norway and Sweden (1923), Switzerland and Austria (1925), Argentina and Chile (1926/27), with Raymond Corbett Shannon, Corsica and USA (1928), the Baltic (1933), Kenya and Uganda (1934-5) (as co-leader of the British Museum Ruwenzori expedition of 1934-35) with Ernest Gibbins, and the Pyrenees (1935). He was able to oversee publication of Alwyn M. Evan's monograph on ''The Mosquitoes of the Ethiopian Region'' after her death in 1937. Among the unusual insects that he described was the flightless marine midge '' Pontomyia''. The mosquito genus '' Fredwardsius'' is named to honor his work establishing the generic and subgeneric framework which forms the basis fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Baker (Uganda)
Mount Baker or Kiyanja is a mountain in the Rwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ..., from the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With a height of , it is the fifth highest mountain in Africa. Together with Mount Stanley and Mount Speke, it forms a triangle enclosing the upper Bujuku Valley. The nearest peak is Mount Stanley, which is to the west. The mountains lie within an area called "The Mountains of the Moon". Like all peaks in the Ruwenzori Range, Mount Baker has multiple jagged peaks along a ridge. The highest is Edward Peak. The ridge line of Mount Baker was first reached in January 1906 by the Austrian mountaineer Rudolf Grauer accompanied by two British missionaries, H. E. Maddox and H. W. Tegart. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Freshfield
Douglas William Freshfield (27 April 1845 – 9 February 1934) was a British lawyer, mountaineer and author, who edited the ''Alpine Journal ''from 1872 to 1880. He was president of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club. He was also the founding president of the Geographical Association. He served from 1897 to 1911, the longest serving president in the history of the Association. Early life and education Born in London, Freshfield was the only son of Henry Ray Freshfield and his wife Jane Quinton Crawford. His father was a notable lawyer and member of the family firm of Freshfields. His mother was the daughter of William Crawford, MP for the City of London (1833–1841), who had made a fortune in the East India Company. She was an author and her publications included "Alpine Byways" and "A Tour of the Grisons" (the Swiss Alps now known as Graubünden). In an interview with Adolfo Hess, Freshfield recalls that his family loved to take long holidays in the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudolf Grauer
Rudolf Grauer (20 August 1870, Hellbrunn, Salzburg – 17 December 1927, Vienna) was an Austrian explorer and zoologist. He conducted zoological investigations in British East Africa (present-day Uganda) in 1905, German East Africa in 1907, and in the Belgian Congo (1910–11).The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals by Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson In 1910 he was among the first Europeans to come in contact with the Mbuti people, Mambuti. He died from actinomycosis, which he had contracted in Africa. His African collections are housed at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna. Eponymy Birds: *Grauer's broadbill, ''Pseudocalyptomena graueri'' *Grauer's cuckooshrike, ''Coracina graueri'' *Grauer's swamp warbler, ''Brady ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpine Club (UK)
The Alpine Club was founded in London on 22 December 1857 and is the world's first list of alpine clubs, mountaineering club. The primary focus of the club is to support mountaineers who climb in the Alps and the Greater Ranges of the world's mountains. Current activities Though the club organises some UK-based meets and indoor lectures, its primary focus has always tended towards mountaineering overseas. It is associated more with exploratory mountaineering than with purely technical climbing (the early club was once dismissed as doing very little climbing but "a lot of walking steeply uphill"). These higher technical standards were often to be found in offshoots such as the 'Alpine Climbing Group' (ACG), which was founded in 1952 and merged with the Alpine Club in 1967; the AGC is aimed at those "who aspire to establish or repeat technically difficult climbs or undertake exploratory expeditions". The club continues to encourage and sponsor mountaineering expeditions through ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
