Sidney Frederic Harmer

Sir Sidney Frederic Harmer, KBE, FRS{{Cite journal | last1 = Calman | first1 = W. T. | author-link = William Thomas Calman| title = Sidney Frederic Harmer. 1862-1950 | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1951.0007 | journal = Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 7 | issue = 20 | pages = 359–371| year = 1951 | jstor = 769025}} (9 March 1862 – 22 October 1950) was a British zoologist.{{cite journal|title=Harmer, Sidney Frederic|journal=Who's Who|year=1919|page= 1096|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015047639912;view=1up;seq=1138}} He was superintendent of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology (1892–1908) and then the Keeper of Zoology (1909–1921) and director (1919–1927) of the Natural History Museum in London. His research focused on taxonomy of invertebrates and Cetacea. He was an elected fellow of the Royal Society (1898), and served as President of the Linnean Society (1927–1931), receiving the Linnean Medal (1934).

Biography

Sidney Harmer was born in 1862, the son of Frederic William Harmer, a Norwich wool merchant and amateur geologist, who served as the city's mayor (1887–88). Sidney Harmer was educated at Amersham Hall school, near Reading, and then University College London (BSc 1880) and King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a first in both parts of the natural sciences tripos (1884), and was later awarded an Sc.D. (1897).

He remained at Cambridge after graduating, and became university lecturer in advanced invertebrate morphology (1885), with a fellowship at King's College (1886), where he was also assistant tutor (1890). From 1892 to 1908, he was Superintendent of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology.{{cite web|title=Cambridge University Museum of Zoology: Histories & Archives|url=http://www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/collections.archives/histories.archives/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101119055339/http://www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/collections.archives/histories.archives/|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 November 2010|access-date=22 March 2013}}

In 1908 he was appointed Keeper of Zoology at the Natural History Museum in London (1909–1921) and was director of the Museum from 1919 to 1927.[http://www.mba.ac.uk/nmbl/collection/photos.htm Photo and brief bio for Sir Sidney Frederic Harmer from National Marine Biological Library of U.K.]. {{Archive url|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217122348/http://www.mba.ac.uk/nmbl/collection/photos.htm#harmer|date=2015-02-17}} He continued to research at the museum after his retirement as director.

His research focused on invertebrate taxonomy, particularly Polyzoa. He also investigated how to protect museum specimens from fading in colour. He published on Cetacea, including cetaceans stranded on the British coast, the whaling industry, and tracing whale migration by marking individual whales. His research library is held in the [http://www.mba.ac.uk/nmbl National Marine Biological Library] at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth.

Family

In 1891, Harmer married Laura Russell Howell, an alumna of the natural science tripos at the University of Cambridge.{{Cite book |last=Osborne |first=Frances |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e7xXsTlRjCEC&dq=laura+harmer&pg=PA93 |title=Lilla's Feast: A True Story Of Love, War, And A Passion For Food |date=2011-04-30 |publisher=Transworld |isbn=978-1-4464-3855-8 |pages=93 |language=en}} She had been a demonstrator in animal morphology at the Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women there.{{Cite journal |last=Richmond |first=Marsha L. |date=1997 |title="A Lab of One's Own": The Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women at Cambridge University, 1884-1914 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/236151 |journal=Isis |volume=88 |issue=3 |pages=422–455 |doi=10.1086/383769 |jstor=236151 |pmid=9450359 |issn=0021-1753|url-access=subscription }} They had four children, including Russell Harmer, the gold medal-winning British sailor, and Iris Mary Harmer, who married the pharmacologist John Gaddum.

Awards, honours and societies

He was made KBE in the 1920 civilian war honours.{{London Gazette|issue=31840|supp=y| page=3759|date=30 March 1920}} He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1898, and served as vice-president of the society in 1922–24. He was President of the Linnean Society 1927–1931 and was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1934.{{acad|id=HRMR880SF|name=Harmer, Sidney Harmer}}

Selected publications

{{cite book|title=On the structure and development of Loxosoma|year=1885|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100444280}}
{{cite book|title= On the life-history of Pedicellina|year=1886|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100444281}}
{{cite book|title=On the British species of Crisia|year=1891|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100444284}}
as editor with Sir Arthur Shipley: {{cite book|title=Cambridge Natural History, series published 1895–|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100103164|location=London|publisher=Macmillan & Co.}}
{{cite book|title=Hemichordata|volume=7|year=1910|series=Cambridge Natural History|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003911302}}
with Richard Lydekker: {{cite book|title=Guide to the whales, porpoises, and dolphins (order Cetacea), exhibited in the Department of zoology, British museum (Natural history)|year=1922|publisher=Printed by order of the Trustees |edition= 2nd|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001502709}}

References

External links

{{Wikisource author-inline}}

Category:1862 births

Category:1950 deaths

Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge

Category:British zoologists

Category:Directors of the Natural History Museum, London

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

Category:Presidents of the Linnean Society of London

Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Byrozoologists