| Authorised form of name | Bourne; Sir; Alfred Gibbs (1859 - 1940); zoologist, botanist, and educator in India |
| Dates | 1859 - 1940 |
| Place of birth | Lowestoft, East Suffolk, Suffolk, England |
| Date of birth | 08 August 1859 |
| Place of death | Dartmoor, Devon, England
|
| Date of death | 14/07/1940 |
| Occupation | Zoologist |
| Research field | Botany |
| Zoology |
| Activity | Education:
DSc (Lond); University College (1876); Royal School of Mines (1876)
Career:
President of the Faculty of Arts in the University of Madras; Assistant to Edwin Ray Lankester (FRS 1875) (1879-85); engaged in research at Zoological Station, Naples (1883-85); appointed to Madras (1885); Registrar of the University of Madras (1891-1899); Botanist to the Government of Madras (1897-98); Member, Indian Universities Commission (1902); Warden, Victoria Hostel, Madras (1900-2); Professor of Biology, the Presidency Coll., Madras, Indian Education Service (1886-1903); Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (1913); following retirement, he became director of the Indian Institute of Science (1915-1921).
Honours:
CIE 1908; KCIE 1913 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 13/06/1895 |
| Age at election | 36 |
| Proposer | Edwin Ray Lankester; Frank Evers Beddard; Walter Frank Raphael Weldon; William Carmichael McIntosh; Alfred Merle Norman; Edward Bagnall Poulton; John Lubbock |
| Relationships | Parents: Reverend Alfred Bourne, secretary of the British Foreign School Society
Spouse: Emily Tree Glaisher (or Glashier in some sources) (1888)
Children: one son and one daughter |
| General context | Specialised in study of aquatic animals, from microscopic to macroscopic.
Bourne published the full description of the nephridia of the medically important leech (Hirudomedicinalis) along with Edwin Ray Lankester (FRS 1875) in 1880.
The plant collections made by Alfred and Emily were of great use to James Sykes Gamble (FRS 1899), who published the first edition of three volumes of the Flora of the Presidency of Madras in 1915. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Related images | Discover a selection of related images in our picture library |
| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; The Indian Biographical Dictionary (1915)
Obituaries:
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 1939-1941 vol 3 pp 545-549, plate, by J Stanley Gardiner |
| Royal Society code | NA1677 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| EC/1895/04 | Bourne, Sir Alfred Gibbs: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| NLB/1/360 | Copy letter from Herbert Rix, to Professor Edwin Ray Lankester, Fellow of the Royal Society | 24 January 1887 |
| NLB/39/179 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Harrison & Sons | 5 December 1908 |
| MC/25/26 | Letter from [Alfred Gibbs] Bourne,The Adyar, Madras, to the [Royal Society] | 26 July 1910 |
| NLB/11/959 | Copy letter from Theodore E James, to Messrs Harrison & Sons | [November 1895] |
| NLB/52/370 | Copy letter from [Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society]; to Publications of the Royal Society | 17 November 1915 |
| NLB/39/196 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Harrison & Sons | 9 December 1908 |
| RR/9/198 | Letter from Alfred Gibbs Bourne, on his paper 'Contributions to the anatomy of the hirudinea' to the Secretary of the Royal Society | 10 December 1883 |
| RR/9/113 | Referee's report by Thomas Henry Huxley, on a paper 'Contributions to the anatomy of the hirudinea' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne | 28 July 1883 |
| RR/9/114 | Letter from Henry Nottidge Moseley, on a paper 'Contributions to the anatomy of the hirudinea' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne to the Secretary of the Royal Society | 25 August 1883 |
| RR/9/115 | Referee's report by Henry Nottidge Moseley, on a paper 'Contributions to the anatomy of the hirudinea' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne | 25 August 1883 |
| PP/6/2 | Paper, 'On the occurrence of a hydroid phase of Limnocodium Sowerbii, Allman and Lankester' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne | 1884 |
| PP/6/2/1 | Manuscript, 'On the occurrence of a hydroid phase of Limnocodium Sowerbii, Allman and Lankester' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne | 1884 |
| PP/6/2/2 | Drawings, 'Hydroid forms of Limnocodium Sowerbii' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne | 1884 |
| PP/10/4 | Paper, 'The reputed suicide of scorpions' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne | 1886 |