John Stephenson (zoologist)

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John Stephenson CIE FRS FRSE FRCS (born February 6, 1871 in Padiham , Lancashire ; died February 2, 1933 in London ) was a British surgeon , zoologist and university professor . He served as a military doctor in the British-Indian Indian Medical Service from 1895 to 1921 . From 1906 to 1919 he was professor at Government College in Lahore , from 1912 its rector and from 1918 vice chancellor of the University of the Punjab . From 1920 to 1929 he was a lecturer in zoology at the University of Edinburgh . As a zoologist, Stephenson explored the little bristles of British India .

Life

Stephenson studied zoology and medicine at Owen's College, University of Manchester . He graduated from Arthur Milnes Marshall in 1890 with a Bachelor of Science and 1893 in Manchester and 1894 in London with a Bachelor of Medicine (MB, B.Chir.). From 1893 to 1894 he was employed as a doctor at the Manchester Royal Infirmary , and from 1894 to 1895 at the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest in London. He married in 1895, the marriage remained childless. In the same year he joined the Indian Medical Service as a lieutenant . During his service, Stephenson took part in the Tirah campaign from 1897 to 1898 , for which he was awarded the India Medal . He was promoted to captain in 1898 and transferred to a cavalry unit in Punjab as a medical officer. From 1900 to 1906 he worked as a surgeon for civil institutions in Peshawar , Ambala and other places in north-west British India. In 1907 he was promoted to major and in 1915 to lieutenant colonel . His wish to return to active service after the beginning of World War I was initially not granted due to concerns from the colonial administration, which considered him indispensable because of his work in higher education, so that Stephenson only stayed for a few months in the summer and fall of 1918 served in Egypt. In 1921 he retired from military service.

In 1906 Stephenson was appointed professor of biology at Government College in Lahore for a limited period of six months . His tenure was extended and he made Government College one of the most important zoological research institutes in British India. In 1912 he was appointed rector of Government College. In 1918 he was also Vice Chancellor of the University of the Punjab . He held these offices until his return to Great Britain in 1919. There he took up a position as a lecturer in zoology at the University of Edinburgh in 1920 . In 1929 he went to London to continue his research at the Natural History Museum as an informal collaborator and to become one of the editors of the Fauna of British India .

When Stephenson took over the professorship for zoology, he began to research the little bristles of British India. His first scientific publication in this field appeared in 1907. In the following years Stephenson became one of the world's leading experts on this taxon . His monograph, published in 1930, is still a standard work today.

Stephenson had a great gift for languages. In addition to several European languages, he spoke Persian , Pashtun , Punjabi , Hindustani and Arabic . In 1910, after several years of research, he published an English translation of the first book of Ḥadiqat al-ḥaqiqa by Sanā'ī Ghaznavi , an important work of Sufism . In 1928 his translation of the zoological section of Hamdallah Mustaufi's Nuzhat al-qulūb (نزهه القلوب).

Initial descriptions

Awards

Publications (selection)

  • John Stephenson: Oligochaeta. Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma . Taylor & Francis, London 1923, archive.org or archive.org .
  • John Stephenson: The Oligochaeta . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1930.
  • Hakim Abul-Majd Majdūd ibn Ādam Sanā'ī Ghaznavi: The First Book of the Ḥadiqat al-ḥaqiqa or The enclosed garden of the truth . Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta 1910, Ghaznavi English translation.pdf archive.org (PDF).
  • John Stephenson (ed. And transl.): The Zoological Section of the Nuzhat al-Qulub . Royal Asiatic Society, London 1928. Reprint: Routledge, London a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-0-415-43936-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d SWK: John Stephenson. 1871-1933 . In: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1933, Volume 1, No. 2, pp. 149–152, doi: 10.1098 / rsbm.1933.0014 .
  2. ↑ a b CD Waterston, A. Macmillan Shearer: Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1783 to 2002. Part II, concentration camp . The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Edinburgh 2006, p. 878, ISBN 0-902198-84-X , digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.royalsoced.org.uk%2Fcms%2Ffiles%2Ffellows%2Fbiographical_index%2Ffells_indexp2.pdf~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D
  3. ^ DG Crawford: Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615-1930 , Volume 1, Entry 2384. Stephenson, John . W. Thacker, London 1930, p. 232.
  4. ↑ a b James Hartley Ashworth : Lieut.-Col. J. Stephenson, CIE, FRS In: Nature 1933, Vol. 131, No. 3302, pp. 193-194, doi: 10.1038 / 131193a0 .
  5. ↑ GMC Smith: Lieut.-Colonel J. Stephenson, IMS, MB, FRCS, D.Sc, FRS, CIE In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland , 1933, Volume 65, No. 2, pp. 495-497, doi: 10.1017 / s0035869x0007547x .
  6. ↑ John Stephenson: Zoological results of a tour in the far east. Aquatic Oligochaeta from Japan and China . In: Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 1917, Volume 6, No. 2, pp. 85-99, Textarchiv - Internet Archive .
  7. ^ John Stephenson: On a collection of Oligochaeta from various parts of India and further India . In: Records of the Indian Museum 1917, Volume 13, pp. 353-416, panels XVI-XVIII, here p. 411, Textarchiv - Internet Archive .
personal data
SURNAME Stephenson, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British surgeon, zoologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Padiham , Lancashire
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1933
Place of death London