Swainson, William John (1789-1855)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
William John Swainson FLS, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist and artist.

Swainson was born in Dover Place, St. Mary Newington, London, the eldest son of John Timothy Swainson, an original fellow of the Linnean Society.He was cousin of the amateur botanist Isaac Swainson.His father's family originated in Lancashire, and both grandfather and father held high posts in Her Majesty's Customs, the father becoming Collector at Liverpool.

William, whose formal education was curtailed because of an impediment in his speech, joined the Liverpool Customs as a junior clerk at the age of 14.He joined the Army Commissariat and toured Malta and SicilyHe studied the ichthyology of western Sicily and in 1815, was forced by ill health to return to England where he subsequently retired on half pay. William followed in his father's footsteps to become a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1815.

TAXONOMIC PUBLICATIONS

 * Swainson W.; Shuckard, W. E. 1840. On the history and natural arrangement of insects. London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longman's, 406 pp.