George William Chaster

George William Chaster was born in Wigan in 1863. He trained as a doctor at University College, Liverpool, winning the Lyon-Jones Scholarship in 1882 and was appointed the Holt Tutorial Fellow in 1889. He also won a number of medals during his training.[1] He established his medical practice in Southport.[2] He was one of the founding members of the Southport Natural Science Society and served as the editor of the Society's journal.[3][4]

From a young age, Chaster was interested in the natural sciences, in particular conchology. He spent is holidays in Ireland, where he would dredge and collect specimens.[2] Along with Irish naturalists, including Robert Welch, Chaster dredged around Rathlin Ireland in 1896 and 1897.[5] He also took part in the Royal Irish Academy's Clare Island Survey.[6] He was also interested in Foraminifera and Coleoptera, publishing numerous papers on a variety of topics. As well as collecting locally in Southport, he also collected in Nottinghamshire. In Ireland, he added a number of newly recorded species to lists.[3] Chaster named the mollusc species, Arculus sykesii and Neolepton obliquatum,[7] the genus Retrotortina with the monotypic species R. fuscata which is considered as Europe's smallest gastropod,[8] and the genus Cima. The foraminifer species Rotalliella chasteri described by Edward Heron-Allen and Arthur Earland in 1913 under the genus Discorbina is named after him.[9] He served as the vice-president of the Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland.[1]

Chaster died on 5 May 1910 from pleuro-pneumonia. The National Museum of Wales holds his collection of around 11,000 insects,[3] and 2,890 lots of molluscs.[10] Robert Lloyd Praeger stated that "Irish conchology especially owes much to his work" and that his premature death "was a severe loss to Irish zoology".[2] Obituaries were published in the British Medical Journal[1] and The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine.[4]