F. H. Gravely

Frederic Henry Gravely
Superintendent of the Government Museum, Chennai and Connemara Public Library
In office 1920–1940
Preceded by	J. R. Henderson
Succeeded by	A. Aiyappan
Personal details
Born	1885
Died	1965
Profession	arachnologist, entomologist, zoologist, archaeologist
Religion	Christian

Frederic Henry Gravely (7 December 1885 – 1965) was an eminent British arachnologist, entomologist, botanist, zoologist and student of archaeology, who conducted pioneering research and wrote extensively on various subjects during his tenure at the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and the Government Museum, Madras.

Gravely was born in 1885 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England to Arthur Frederic Gravely and Margaret Hutchinson, the eldest of four children. He studied at the University of Manchester.

When working as Assistant Superintendent at the Indian Museum, Calcutta, Dr. Gravely conducted pioneering classification work on the family Passalidae. He unified the monographs of early observers with the notes of Arrow and Zang to bring to the oriental passalids (1914), and the family itself in general (1918), the classification that is in vogue today with minor alterations.

Dr. Gravely became the Superintendent of the Government Museum of Madras in 1920. Over the next two decades, he undertook the investigation of the littoral fauna of Krusadai Island, Gulf of Mannar, revived the Bulletin of the museum, and embarked on the scientific preservation, study and interpretation of the museum's collections. His work on Arachnida and Mollusca significantly enhanced the collections of the museum in the two zoological groups. He was also responsible for enlarging the reserve collection, particularly of Invertebrates.

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