James Edwin Duerden or J.E. Duerden M.Sc., Ph.D., A.R.C.S. (1869 – 4 September 1937) was a British

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

who became an international expert on the

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

industry.

Early life and education

Little is known about the early life of James Edwin Duerden, but it's believed that he was born in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

in 1869. His family were members of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Duerden attended the

Royal College of Science The Royal College of Science was a higher education institution located in South Kensington; it was a constituent college of Imperial College London from 1907 until it was wholly absorbed by Imperial in 2002. Still to this day, graduates from t ...

in London from 1885 to 1889, becoming an Associate, then later transferred to

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

where he received an

M.Sc. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

, graduating in 1900. Duerden married in 1893 in Burnley. The couple had one son, Edwin Noel on 30 March 1896, who died at the age of six on 24 September 1902.

Career

Duerden was employed in the Royal College of Science for Ireland from 1893 to 1895 as a Demonstrator in Zoology and Palaeontology. He lectured and conducted fishery surveys along with

Alfred Cort Haddon Alfred Cort Haddon, Sc.D., FRS, FRGS FRAI (24 May 1855 – 20 April 1940) was an influential British anthropologist and ethnologist. Initially a biologist, who achieved his most notable fieldwork, with W. H. R. Rivers, Charles Gabriel Selig ...

and

Ernest William Lyons Holt Ernest William Lyons Holt or E. W. L. Holt (17 October 1864 – 10 June 1922) was an English marine naturalist and biologist who specialized in ichthyology, the study of fish. His work helped lay a scientific foundation for the fishery m ...

, with his published material focused on Irish

Hydrozoa Hydrozoa (hydrozoans; from Ancient Greek ('; "water") and ('; "animals")) is a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class (biology), class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most of which inhabit saline wat ...

and

Bryozoa Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic animal, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary Colony (biology), colonies. Typically about long, they have a spe ...

. The specimens he collected were exhibited at meetings of the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club and the Dublin Microscopical Club. His findings of new and unusual bryozoans were published by the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...

(1893), the

Royal Dublin Society The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) () is an Irish philanthropic organisation and members club which was founded as the 'Dublin Society' on 25 June 1731 with the aim to see Ireland thrive culturally and economically. It was long active as a learned ...

(1895), and in ''

The Irish Naturalist ''The Irish Naturalist'' was a scientific journal that was published in Dublin, Ireland, from April 1892 until December 1924. History The journal owed its establishment to the efforts of several leading Dublin naturalists, notably George H. ...

'' (1892 and 1894). From this position in Dublin, Duerden took up a role of curator in the Museum in the

Institute of Jamaica The Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), founded in 1879, is the country's most significant cultural, artistic and scientific organisation:Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

in 1895. Whilst in Jamaica, Duerden studied the local caves, marine resources, anthropological findings, and madreporarian corals, publishing a monograph on the latter in 1901. At this point, Duerden was best known for his work on corals. Duerden remained in contact with colleagues in Dublin, sending geological material to

Grenville Cole Grenville Arthur James Cole FRS, FGS, MRIA (21 October 1859 – 20 April 1924) was an English geologist. He was from 1890 the Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the Royal College of Science for Ireland, and from 1905 he became the fifth Di ...

. Duerden moved to the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

, taking up the position of Acting Professor of Biology from 1902 to 1903, filling in for Professor Henry Van Peters Wilson. Whilst there, Duerden taught a variety of subjects, including general biology, mammalian anatomy, vertebrate histology, zoology, and vertebrate embryology, and was a member of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society. During his time in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, Duerden published at least 15 papers on the morphology and biology of corals between 1902 and 1906. Between 1903 and 1905, he was the Acting Assistant Professor or Instructor of Zoology at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

and an Honorary Curator at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

. He conducted an expedition to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

to study Pacific corals, funded by the

Carnegie Institution for Science The Carnegie Institution for Science, also known as Carnegie Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is an organization established to fund and perform scientific research in the United States. This institution is headquartered in W ...

. He moved to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in 1904 to take up the role of Professor of Zoology at

Rhodes University Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...

. He was the first person to hold this position, and for a number of years he was the only member of staff. Whilst there, he studied

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...

es, focusing on their feathers, producing a number of papers on the subject in 1909 and 1913. The ostrich feather industry collapsed due to

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, so Duerden's academic focus turned to

. In this work he was associated with the Grootfontein College of Agriculture and the

Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital The Faculty of Veterinary Science is a faculty of the University of Pretoria. Founded in 1920, it is the second oldest veterinary faculty in Africa. With the exception of the faculties in Khartoum (Sudan, 1938), and Cairo (Egypt, 1946), all ...

. Having built up a research team, Duerden became a leading authority on wool, leading to his appointment as the Director of Wool Research at the

Department of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

. He devised the Duerden Crimp Scale in 1927, for use by the wool industry. Duerden was elected as the President of the

South African Association for the Advancement of Science South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

in 1921. Duerden spoke and published on

eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...

whilst in this position.

Later life and legacy

Duerden retired from Rhodes University in 1932, though continued to work with the Grootfontein Agricultural College. This college has an annual prize named in his honour, the Duerden Shield, for a student working in the area of sheep, goats and wool. Duerden returned in England, where he worked for the

Wool Industries Research Association The Wool Industries Research Association was an industrial research organization in the United Kingdom. It later became the Wira Technology Group before being merged with the Shirley Institute in the 1989 to form the British Textile Technology Gro ...

at Headingley, Leeds, and was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. He died in Leeds on 4 September 1937.

Eponymous species

*''Homostichanthus duerdeni'' Carlgren, 1900. *''

Pavona duerdeni ''Pavona duerdeni'', the porkchop coral, is a coral that forms clusters of cream-colored lobes or discs.Fenner, Douglas. 2005. Corals of Hawaii: A field guide to the hard, black, and soft corals of Hawaii and the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, inc ...

'' Vaughan, 1907. *'' Atractaspis duerdeni'' Gough, 1907. ("Duerden", p. 76).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duerden, James Edwin British naturalists 1869 births 1937 deaths People from Burnley Herpetologists Presidents of the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science