R. B. Freeman

R. B. Freeman
Freeman in London, 1974.
Born	(1915-04-01)1 April 1915 London, England
Died	1 September 1986(1986-09-01) (aged 71) London, England
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	Zoology, natural history, bibliography
Institutions	University College London
Alma mater	Magdalen College, Oxford
Known for	The Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist; Charles Darwin: A Companion; Philip Henry Gosse: A Bibliography

Richard Broke Freeman (1 April 1915 – 1 September 1986) was a zoologist, historian of zoology, bibliographer of natural history and book collector. Known professionally as R. B. Freeman, he compiled comprehensive reference works on Charles Darwin and on P. H. Gosse. He was “a meticulous scholar” and a “brilliant bibliographer” who showed “a genuine modesty about his great erudition.” "It is darkly rumored among antiquarian booksellers that R. B. Freeman once missed a completely unrecorded and absurdly rare 1859 second issue of the first edition of The Origin of Species", a reviewer wrote in the Times Literary Supplement, "but this is also said to be the only mistake he has made during a lifetime of persistent scholarship and imaginative detective work in libraries, bookshops, sale-rooms, the attics of country houses and the trunks of the great-aunts of great men."

Freeman was born in London. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford (1935–38), he received his BA in 1938 (First Class honours in Zoology) and MA in 1950. He was reading for his doctor of philosophy degree with a Senior Demyship at Magdalen when World War II began. From 1939–46, he was employed in pest control by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries at the Bureau of Animal Population in Oxford. He rose to the rank of Major with the 111th Rocket Anti-Aircraft Battery, 101st Oxford Home Guard in 1944, and was awarded an MBE for meritorious service.

Freeman was married to Dr. Mary Whitear, a zoologist at the University of London, and they had two sons. In 1946, he was appointed Lecturer in Zoology at University College London, and from 1951 to his retirement in 1982, he was University Reader in Taxonomy. At the time of his death from a sudden heart attack, he was Emeritus Reader.