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Authorised form of nameBourne; Sir; Alfred Gibbs (1859 - 1940); zoologist, botanist, and educator in India
Dates1859 - 1940
Place of birthLowestoft, East Suffolk, Suffolk, England
Date of birth08 August 1859
Place of deathDartmoor, Devon, England
Date of death14/07/1940
OccupationZoologist
Research fieldBotany
Zoology
ActivityEducation:
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 categoryFellow
Date of election13/06/1895
Age at election36
ProposerEdwin Ray Lankester; Frank Evers Beddard; Walter Frank Raphael Weldon; William Carmichael McIntosh; Alfred Merle Norman; Edward Bagnall Poulton; John Lubbock
RelationshipsParents: 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
OtherInfoSpecialised 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 MemoirClick to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices)
Related imagesDiscover a selection of related images in our picture library
SourceSources:
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
CodeNA1677
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
EC/1895/04Bourne, Sir Alfred Gibbs: certificate of election to the Royal Society
NLB/1/360Copy letter from Herbert Rix, to Professor Edwin Ray Lankester, Fellow of the Royal Society24 January 1887
NLB/39/179Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Harrison & Sons5 December 1908
NLB/11/959Copy letter from Theodore E James, to Messrs Harrison & Sons[November 1895]
NLB/52/370Copy letter from [Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society]; to Publications of the Royal Society17 November 1915
NLB/39/196Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Harrison & Sons9 December 1908
RR/9/198Letter from Alfred Gibbs Bourne, on his paper 'Contributions to the anatomy of the hirudinea' to the Secretary of the Royal Society10 December 1883
RR/9/113Referee's report by Thomas Henry Huxley, on a paper 'Contributions to the anatomy of the hirudinea' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne28 July 1883
RR/9/114Letter from Henry Nottidge Moseley, on a paper 'Contributions to the anatomy of the hirudinea' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne to the Secretary of the Royal Society25 August 1883
RR/9/115Referee's report by Henry Nottidge Moseley, on a paper 'Contributions to the anatomy of the hirudinea' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne 25 August 1883
PP/6/2Paper, 'On the occurrence of a hydroid phase of Limnocodium Sowerbii, Allman and Lankester' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne1884
PP/6/2/1Manuscript, 'On the occurrence of a hydroid phase of Limnocodium Sowerbii, Allman and Lankester' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne1884
PP/6/2/2Drawings, 'Hydroid forms of Limnocodium Sowerbii' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne1884
PP/10/4Paper, 'The reputed suicide of scorpions' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne1886
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