Richard Parnell

{{short description|British physician and naturalist}}

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

File:Norman Macbeth - Richard Parnell, doctor of medicine and natural historian. Wellcome V0018048.jpg}}]]

Richard Parnell FRSE MWS (4 March 1814–28 October 1882) was a British physician as well as an amateur zoologist, ichthyologist and agrostologist. He gives his name to Parnell's moustached bat. The grass Parnelli is also named after him.Etymological Dictionary of Grasses, HT Clifford and PD Bistock

He was born at Bramford Speke in Devon in 1810 the son of John Ratcliffe Parnell (1774-1826).{{Cite web | url=https://www.myheritage.com/FP/genealogy-search-ppc.php?type=&action=person&siteId=132678341&indId=1504171&origin=profile | title=Records Available for John Ratcliffe Parnell - MyHeritage}} He went to the University of Edinburgh in 1834 to study medicine. He won Professor Robert Graham's gold medal for practical botany and Professor John Lizars' silver medal for anatomy. On 8 February 1836 he was one of the founding members of the Edinburgh Botanical Society. He finished his medical training with postgraduate study in London and Paris.{{Cite journal | doi=10.1080/03746608609468215|title = Richard Parnell, M.D.|journal = Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh| volume=16| pages=6–8|year = 1886|issue = 1–4}}

In 1837 (aged 27) he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being Sir William Jardine.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf}}

From April 1839 well into 1840 he collected specimens in Jamaica and the West Indies, taking extensive notes and making many illustrations. He also made a tour of the museum collections of the United States.The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals

He returned to Edinburgh in the 1850s living in the Leith area at 7 James Place.Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1860 He was married to a daughter of James Curle of Evelaw. He died at home, 17 Merchiston AvenueEdinburgh Post Office Directory 1881 in west Edinburgh on 28 October 1882.

His collection of fish is held by the National Museum of Scotland.{{cite web |title=Parnell, Richard, 1810-1882 |url=https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6wm1zdf |website=Social Networks and Archival Context |access-date=13 May 2021}}