Keppel Harcourt Barnard (31 March 1887 – 22 September 1964) was a South African zoologist and museum director. He was the only son of Harcourt George Barnard, a solicitor from

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, which today also gives its name to the (much larger) London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth itself was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charin ...

, and Anne Elizabeth Porter of Royston.

Life and career

Barnard was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. His first education was at a private school in

Camberley Camberley is a town in north-west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. It is in the Surrey Heath, Borough of Surrey Heath and is close to the county boundaries with Hampshire and Berkshire. Known originally as "Cambridge Tow ...

from where he went to the Realgymnasium in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

to improve his German. From 1905 to 1908 this unusually gifted and versatile scholar attended Christ's College, Cambridge, taking the Natural Sciences Tripos in Botany, Geology and Zoology. He also took the newly introduced courses in Anthropology, Ethnology and Geography. For the following three years he studied law at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

, becoming a barrister in 1911. After a short spell as naturalist with the

Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

, he joined the staff of the South African Museum in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

in 1911 as a marine biology assistant. He became assistant director in 1921 and director from 1946 until his 1956 retirement when he was free to work on the molluscs. His D.Sc. was from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

with a dissertation on the "''Distribution of Crustacea in South African Waters''", and he eventually became a world authority on

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s. His other favoured field was the taxonomy and classification of South African fishes, a discipline in which he did important pioneering work.

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University (SU) (, ) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Sahara ...

awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1956. Barnard was a keen mountaineer and served as secretary of the Mountain Club of South Africa from 1918 to 1945, and it was by way of the mountains that he met the amateur botanist Thomas Pearson Stokoe who was to become a close friend and climbing companion. Barnard's mountaineering interest first brought him into contact with the genus '' Colophon'', and many species of the beetle, such as '' Colophon primosi'', were named after his mountaineering friends. In 1915 he married Alice Watkins, and they raised a family of two children, a son and a daughter. Barnard died, aged 73, in

Legacy

Barnard is commemorated in the scientific names of two species of geckos, '' Pachydactylus barnardi'' and '' Rhoptropus barnardi''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011)
''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Barnard, K. H.", p. 17). And a fish '' Enteromius barnardi''. R. A. Jubb, 1965

References

External links

Barnard KH (1916). "Contributions to the Crustacean Fauna of South Africa". ''Annals of the South African Museum'' 15: 105-302 + Plates XXVI-XXVIII.Barnard KH (1958). "Contribution to the knowledge of South African Marine Mollusca. Part 1. Gastropoda; Prosobranchiata: Toxoglossa". ''Annals of The South African Museum'' 44: 73 -163.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnard, Keppel Harcourt South African carcinologists South African malacologists South African ichthyologists South African mountain climbers Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge University of Cape Town alumni 1887 births 1964 deaths 20th-century South African zoologists British emigrants to South Africa Museum directors