William Bernhardt Tegetmeier

William Bernhardt Tegetmeier FZS (4 November 1816 – 19 November 1912) was an English naturalist, a founding member of the Savage Club, a popular writer and journalist of domestic science. A correspondent and friend of Charles Darwin, his studies on pigeon breeding and the optimality of hexagonal cells constructed by bees were influential in developing ideas on evolution. He wrote a number of books dealing with home economics, poultry farming, pigeon breeds, bee-keeping and on the maintenance of livestock.

Born in Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire, the oldest of three sons, of Sarah Luer and Godfrey Conrad Tegetmeier. His father was a Hanover surgeon who had worked on board the H.M.S. Niobe during the war in America and briefly on a Russian man-of-war. He received his early education at home and when he was twelve, the family moved to London and he worked as an apprentice to his father for five years before studying at the University College London and training at the hospital where he was a clinical clerk to John Elliotson. Some of his fellow students included Ray Lankester, William Jenner and W.B. Carpenter. He then moved to work in Northamptonshire to assist local physician Frederic Gee. Returning to London in 1841 he attended lectures by John Hoppus to train in mesmerism and then led a life of Bohemianism and worked as a freelance journalist.

Around the 1840s, Tegetmeier took some interest in cockfights, writing about them in Colman's Magazine under the pen name of "T. Hornby". Around 1845 he worked briefly as a school teacher and in December of the same year he married Anne Edwards Stone who worked in the school associated with the Home and Colonial School Society college where he taught domestic economy. Their marriage led to their dismissal from their teaching posts but William was reinstated after a while. He wrote several textbooks for students including "Arithmetical tables", "Classification of Animals and Vegetables" and "First Lines of Botany". In 1851 he wrote "The Book of One Hundred Beverages" which included recipes for various non-alcoholic drinks.

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