Francis Arthur Bather

{{Short description|British scientist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Francis Arthur Bather FRS{{Cite journal | last1 = Lang | first1 = William Dickson| author-link= William Dickson Lang| title = Francis Arthur Bather. 1863-1934 | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1934.0014 | journal = Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 1 | issue = 3 |page=302 | year = 1934 }} (17 February 1863, in Richmond upon Thames – 20 March 1934) was a British palaeontologist, geologist and malacologist. His mother, Lucy Elizabeth Blomfield, was a daughter of Charles Blomfield, Bishop of London. His father, Arthur Henry Bather, who was deaf, was a clerk in the office of the Accountant-General for the Navy.{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/library-rnid/2012/01/20/a-19th-century-deaf-civil-servant/|title=A 19th century Deaf civil servant | UCL UCL Ear Institute & Action on Hearing Loss Libraries|website=blogs.ucl.ac.uk}}

Bather joined the Department of Geology at the Natural History Museum in 1887.{{cite magazine|title=Bather, Francis Arthur|magazine=Who's Who|year=1907|volume= 59|page=110|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA110}} He became Keeper in succession to Arthur Smith Woodward in 1924, retiring in 1928.

Bather was awarded the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society, of which he also served as president. He was an Honorary Member of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall,{{Cite web|url=https://collections.royalsociety.org/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%2527EC/1909/09%2527)|title=DServe Archive Catalog Show|website=collections.royalsociety.org}} and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1909. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1928.{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=28 May 2011}} In 1932 Bather was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.{{cite web|title=Mary Clark Thompson Medal |url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_thompson |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |access-date=14 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229195631/http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_thompson |archive-date=29 December 2010 }}

He married Stina Bergöö, daughter of Adolf Bergöö of Stockholm, and sister of the Swedish artist Karin Bergöö Larsson and they had a daughter and two sons.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-205793|chapter=Bather, Francis Arthur, (17 Feb. 1863–20 March 1934)|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U205793 |isbn=978-0-19-954089-1 |title=Who Was Who |year=2007 }}.[http://www.sydnarkenytt.se/blogg/artikel/kvinnokamp-i-hallsberg#.V30AKixmp7s] A photographic portrait is in the National Gallery.[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw109363/Francis-Arthur-Bather] Portrait of Francis Arthur Bather