Richard Bowdler Sharpe

Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several monographs on bird groups and produced a multi-volume catalogue of the specimens in the collection of the museum. He described several new species of bird and a several species of bird including Sharpe's longclaw (Hemimacronyx sharpei) and Sharpe's pied-babbler (Turdoides sharpei) are named in his honour.

Richard was born in London, the first son of Thomas Bowdler Sharpe. His grandfather, Reverend Lancelot Sharpe was Rector of All Hallows Staining. His father was a publisher on Skinner Street and was best known for being the publisher of Sharpe's London Magazine, an illustrated periodical (weekly but monthly from 1847). His care from the age of six was under an aunt, Magdalen Wallace, widow of the headmaster at Grammar School in Sevenoaks and went to school in Brighton. At nine he studied at The King's School, Peterborough receiving a King's Scholarship. He then moved to Loughborough Grammar School. He returned to London at the age of sixteen and worked as a clerk with W. H. Smith & Sons. He already took an interest in ornithology and was interested in writing a monograph on the kingfishers. After two years, in 1865, he joined the company of the bookseller Bernard Quaritch and had an opportunity to examine ornithological books and began to work in earnest on his monograph, purchasing specimens of kingfishers from a meagre income. At nineteen, in 1867, he became a librarian at the Zoological Society of London on the recommendation of Osbert Salvin and Philip Sclater and he completed his Monograph of the Kingfishers (1868–71) during this period. The book was produced in parts with 121 illustrations.

He then began to collaborate with Henry Dresser on A History of the Birds of Europe but this had to be abandoned because of his new appointment. On the death of George Robert Gray in 1872 he joined the British Museum as a Senior Assistant in the Department of Zoology, taking charge of the bird collection. On December 3, 1867 he married Emily Eliza, daughter of J. W. Burrows of Cookham dedicating Tanysiptera galatea emiliae to her in 1871. They had ten daughters and many of them contributed to his books (and of other authors too) by hand colouring the lithograph plates. One daughter, Emily Mary, worked in the entomology department of the Natural History Museum between 1905 and 1925. He became Assistant Keeper in 1895, a position he held until his death from pneumonia in 1909. He died at his home in Chiswick. In 1911 a ₤100 civil pension was granted to his wife and daughters Emily Mary, Ada Lavinia and Eva Augusta.

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