George Busk

George Busk FRS (12 August 1807 – 10 August 1886) was a British naval surgeon, zoologist and palaeontologist.

George Busk

Born(1807-08-12)12 August 1807
Died10 August 1886(1886-08-10) (aged 78)
London, United Kingdom
Resting placeKensal Green Cemetery, London
51.5286°N 0.2241°W / 51.5286; -0.2241
NationalityBritish
OccupationSurgeon
Title
Spouse(s)Ellen Busk (1843–1886)
ChildrenTwo daughters
Awards
Signature
The grave of George Busk, Kensal Green Cemetery

Early life, family and education

Busk was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.[1] He was the son of the merchant Robert Busk and his wife Jane. Robert Busk was the son of Sir Wadsworth Busk,[2] who was an Attorney General of the Isle of Man.[1] Jane Busk's father, John Westly, was Customs House clerk in St. Petersburg.[1]

He studied at Dr. Hartley's School in Yorkshire.[1] He studied surgery in London, at both St Thomas' Hospital and for one session at St Bartholomew's Hospital.[1]

Career

Busk was appointed assistant-surgeon to the Greenwich Hospital in 1832. He served as naval surgeon first in HMS Grampus.[3] He later served for many years in HMS Dreadnought, which had fought at Trafalgar. In Busk's time it was used by the Seamen's Hospital Society as a hospital ship for ex-members of the Merchant Navy or fishing fleet and their dependants. During this period Busk made important observations on cholera and on scurvy.[3]

He founded the Greenwich Natural History Society in 1852, serving as its president until 1858.[4]

In 1855, he retired from service and from medicine[1] and settled in London, where he devoted himself mainly to the study of zoology and palaeontology. As early as 1842, he assisted in editing the Microscopical Journal; and later he edited the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (1853–68) and the Natural History Review (1861–65).[3] He was a member of the famous X-Club, founded by T. H. Huxley, which was active in revitalising science in the period 1865–1885. Busk and his wife Ellen were close friends of Huxley. Busk nominated Charles Darwin for membership in the Royal Society in 1864.

From 1856–1859, he was Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology in the Royal College of Surgeons, and he became President of the college in 1871. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1850. Busk was an active member of the Linnean Society, the Geological Society and president of the Ethnological Society[1] and then the Anthropological Institute (1873–74). He received the Royal Society's Royal Medal and the Geological Society's Wollaston and Lyell medals.[3]

Busk was the leading authority on the Polyzoa; and later the vertebrate remains from caverns and river deposits occupied his attention.[3] In 1862, Busk was again in Gibraltar. He was responsible of bringing to England the Gibraltar skull (the second Neanderthal fossil ever found and the first known adult one) which was excavated at Gibraltar in 1848. The identification of the skull as belonging to a Neanderthal was not made until the 20th century.[5]

Personal life and demise

On 12 August 1843 George Busk married Ellen Busk, his first cousin.[6] They had two daughters.[1]

He died in London on 10 August 1886 and is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London, in the northern section of the central circle.[3]

Notes

  1. "Busk, George (1807 - 1866)". Plarr's Lives of the Fellows. Royal College of Surgeons. Retrieved 10 February 2020 via rcseng.ac.uk.
  2. Woodward 1901, pp. 357.
  3. Chisholm 1911, p. 874.
  4. Leggatt, David, Richard Buchanan (ed.), West Kent Scientific Society 1857–1957, archived from the original on 26 February 2009
  5. Keith1994, pp. 180–1.
  6. Aspland 1843, p. 602.

References

Attribution
Awards
Preceded by
James Hector
Lyell Medal
1878
Succeeded by
Edmond Hebert
Preceded by
Albert Jean Gaudry
Wollaston Medal
1885
Succeeded by
Alfred Des Cloizeaux
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