Google is celebrating the 224th birthday of William John Swainson with an interactive colourful Google Doodle.
Here are the few points you should know about him:
William John Swainson was Born in London on October 8 1789.
Swainson was the eldest surviving son of John Timothy Swainson, a customs collector in Liverpool, and his second wife Frances Stanway.
Swainson’s formal education and early career in H.M. Customs and Excise, which he begun aged 14, was hampered by a severe speech impediment. It was not until his father secured him a role with the army commissariat that he developed an interest in nature.
In 1807 Swainson was posted to Malta and then Sicily, where he begun to pick up botanical and zoological specimens which he would store in extensive collections, developing a particular interest in fish. Subsequent stints in Greece and Italy allowed him to continue his exploration of Mediterranean fish and flowers.
Retiring from the commissariat with half pay in 1815, Swainson was free to develop his burgeoning interest in orthnologist. He headed out to Brazil with English explorer Henry Koster and spent the following years building up vast collection of insects, plants and fish.
It was in a dispatch from Brazil that Swainson is credited with accidentally triggering the Victorian era’s fascination with orchids.
Some of his books hinted at a spiritual underpinning to his interest in nature.
His wife Mary’s death in 1835 only increased these pressures, leaving him to look after their five children alone.
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