Edward Newton

{{Short description|British colonial administrator and ornithologist}}

{{Other people|Edward Newton}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}

{{Use British English|date=October 2012}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Edward Newton

| image = Newton Edward 1832-1897.jpg

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1832|11|10|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Elveden, Suffolk, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1897|4|25|1832|11|10|df=yes}}

| death_place = Lowestoft, Suffolk, England

| awards =

}}

Sir Edward Newton {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCMG}} (10 November 1832 – 25 April 1897) was a British colonial administrator and ornithologist.

He was born at Elveden Hall, Suffolk the sixth and youngest son of William Newton, MP. He was the brother of ornithologist Alfred Newton. He graduated from Magdelene College, Cambridge in 1857 and was one of the twenty founding members of the British Ornithologists' Union.{{cite journal|author=Anonymous|year=1908|title=Original members: Sir Edward Newton|journal=Ibis|series=9th Series|volume=2 Jubilee Supplement|pages=117–120|doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1909.tb05250.x|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8750802|doi-access=free}}

Newton was the Colonial Secretary for Mauritius from 1859 to 1877. From there he sent his brother a number of specimens, including the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire, both already extinct.

In 1878, Newton initiated the first laws anywhere specifically designed to protect indigenous land birds from persecution.

Edward was later Colonial Secretary and Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica (1877–1883).{{cite book|last=Wollaston AFR|author-link=species:Alexander Frederick Richmond Wollaston|year=1921|title=Life of Alfred Newton: late Professor of Comparative Anatomy, Cambridge University 1866–1907|publisher=Murray|place=London|page=2|url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924024760260#page/n23/mode/2up}} He married Mary Louisa Cranstoun, daughter of W.W.R. Kerr in 1869. She died the following year.

He is commemorated in the binomial of the Malagasy kestrel, Falco newtoni.

Phelsuma edwardnewtoni, a species of gecko, is named in his honour.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Edward Newton", p. 80).

{{Wikisource author}}