Mr. Thompson's invalid Mottled Petrel (1 Viewer)

I keep cleaning my desk, from notes and scribbles, piled up during years of work with my MS (of Swedish Common Bird names), now only about 40 (more or less) forthcoming threads to go (as it looks like) ... Wow! I can suddenly see the surface of my desk! So here´s some possible, at least plausible, additional info on ...

thompsoni as in:
• the invalid "Pterodroma inexpectata thompsoni" MATHEWS 1915 (here) ... but (in Mathews's usual way) no dedication nor any explanation ... [Synonym of Pterodroma inexpectata FORSTER 1844]

Today's HBW Alive Key explains this eponym as:

thompsoni
[...]
● Hubert Charles Thompson (fl. 1911) Australian oologist, photographer (syn. Pterodroma inexpectata).

Click to expand...

... which I assume (!) is equal of the Australian (alt. Tasmanian) naturalist and ornithologist Hubert Charles Thompson (who died in 1953), founding member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) and an honorary life member ... Born in Tasmania, in xxx? ... and died 26 June 1953, in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia "... at the age of 84."

See here, or his short death note in The Emu 1953 (here). His grave stone is found here: "... Died 26th June 1953 in his 85th year".

If also an oologist and photographer as claimed above is unknown to me ... or is/was there also a completely different Hubert Charles Thompson!?

For what it´s worth!

Björn
--

Quick return on this one ...

Nothing new, still no Birth date found, on Mr Thompson, only an additional Death Notice, from the Tasmanian newspaper The Examiner (here).

To me this looks like he was born in 1869 (or if not, to be on the safe side; "c.1869") ...

In line with how its written in The Encyclopedia of Australian Science here:

Thompson, Hubert Charles (c. 1869 - 1953)

Click to expand...

For what it´s worth.

/B

I had a look in Whittell's The Literature of Australian Birds to see if it had a date of birth, but no. It doesn't list any other Thompsons as being active authors on Australian birds at the time, nor were any others in the early membership lists for the RAOU, so the HBW Alive assumption seems a reasonable one. Plus the specimen Mathews described was collected in northern Tasmania, which is where H.C. Thompson lived.

To me this looks like he was born in 1869

Click to expand...

The obituary said he was 84. His grave says he was in his 85th year which is the same thing. Except for your birthday. So he was born in 1869 before June 26, 1869.
https://billiongraves.com/grave/Eva-Jane-Thompson/6567241 .

Calalp said:

If also an oologist and photographer as claimed above is unknown to me ... or is/was there also a completely different Hubert Charles Thompson!?
[/COLOR]

Click to expand...

Maybe from The Flight of the Emu: A Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology, 1901-2001 p. 373? At least the bird photographer.

THOMPSON, Hubert Charles (1869-1953) Thompson, a bird photographer, contributed many of the photos used as illustrations in F. M. Littler's A Handbook of the Birds of Tasmania (1910). Keen oologist. Correspondent of Dudley Le Souef and A. H. E. Mattingley (qq.v.). Foundation member (R)AOU 1901 and honorary life member 1945. van Tets, Gerard Frederiek ('Jerry') (1929-1995) Van Tets arrived in Australia from Canada in 1963 and joined the CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology. His CSIRO esearch included bird strikes and aircraft, and osteology, later becoming involved with the osteological part of the Australian National Wildlife Collection. After his retirement in the late 1980s he continued with this work as an honorary curator and also worked part-time in the department of prehistory at the Australian National University. Interested in palaeontology and ornithology (cormorants and other waterbirds).

Click to expand...

Taphrospilus said:

contributed many of the photos used as illustrations in F. M. Littler's A Handbook of the Birds of Tasmania (1910).

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

This (with his photos) can be seen [here].