Jonathan Couch
| Jonathan Couch | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
15 March 1789 Polperro, Cornwall, United Kingdom |
| Died | 13 April 1870 (aged 81) Polperro |
| Residence | Polperro, Cornwall |
| Citizenship | British |
| Fields | Ichthyology |
Jonathan Couch (15 March 1789 – 13 April 1870) was a British naturalist, the only child of Richard and Philippa Couch, of a family long resident at Polperro, a small fishing village between Looe and Fowey, on the south coast of Cornwall. A blue plaque on the wall of Warren cottage commemorates his birthplace.
After receiving a sound classical education in Cornish schools, and some years' pupillage with two local medical men, he entered the united hospitals of Guy's and St. Thomas's in 1808, and in 1809 or early in 1810 returned to Polperro, which he was rarely to leave, dying on 13 April 1870, aged 81. For sixty years he was the doctor and trusted adviser of the village and neighbourhood, and used with remarkable shrewdness and perseverance the great opportunities afforded to a naturalist at Polperro.
He trained in succession a large number of fishermen to aid him in his pursuits, and the observations made at and near Polperro during his lifetime and since his death have not been equalled in value at any British station. He was in correspondence with many of the foremost naturalists, and especially rendered aid to Thomas Bewick and to William Yarrell. Another correspondent was Thomas Edward, of Banff, who sent him numerous fish specimens whose identification was doubtful. Among his local fellow-workers and coadjutors, each of them notable, were C. W. Peach, Matthias Dunn, and William Loughrin.
Couch's principal work was done in ichthyology. In 1835 he obtained a prize offered by Mr. J. Buller of Morval for the best natural history of the pilchard, printed in the third report of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, and also separately. He had before this given much assistance to Bewick in his British Quadrupeds, as well as in relation to his projected Natural History of British Fishes, and Yarrell was still more indebted to him in his British Fishes, to all three editions of which (1836, 1841, and 1859) Couch was a copious contributor.
...
Wikipedia