Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London - University Library

LIXNEAX SOCIETY OF LOXDOX. IO9
[ThefoUoiving Obituary Notice ivas onh/ received on the 'IlthSeptemher,
after the foregoing pages were in tijpeJ]
Walter Fbaxk Eaphael "Weldox, the subject oE the present
memoir, was born on Marcli 15tb, 18G0, and was educated at
Caversliam School and afterwards, during 1876 and 1877, at
University and Kinji's Colleges, London. In April 1878 he
entered St. John's College, Cambridge, and studied Physiology
and Zoology under Prof. Michael Foster and the late Francis
Maitland l^alfour. He obtained a first class in the first part of
the ]S"atura] Science Tripos (under the old Statutes) in 1881 and
proceeded to the degree of B.A. in the same year. In 1882 he
was placed in the fii'st class in the second part of the Natural
Science Tripos, and after a period of study at the Zoological
Station at Naples, was resident chiefly at Cambridge, ^^-here he
was engaged in zoological research, and acted as a Demonstrator
to Mr. A. Sedgwick and Assistant Lecturer in the Zoological
Laboratories. He married in 1883 Florence Joy, the eldest
daughter of William Tebb, Esq., of Eede Hall, Burstow, Surrey,
and never was there a happier marriage. lu November 1884
AVeldon was elected to a Fellowship at St. John's College, and
almost simultaneously was appointed L^niversitj^ Lecturer in the
Advanced Morphology of Invertebrata at Cambridge. In 1886,
a year after his lather's death, he went in company with his wile
on a zoological expedition to the Bahamas, and returning to
Cambridge at the end of the same year, resumed his work as
L'niversity Lectxirer. In 1888, on the completion of the Laboratory
of the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth. AYeldon was
one of the first to make use of the opportunities offered for the
study of English Marine Zoology, and having obtained leave of
absence from Cambridge, he resided at Plymouth for two years,
and there began the course of biometrical research which was
the chief interest of the rest of his life. In December 1890 he
was elected to the Jodrell Chair of Zoology in University College.
London, in succession to Professor Bay Laukester; and in 1899,
when the latter was appointed Director of the British Museum of
Natural History, Weldon again succeeded him, this time as
Linaci'e Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Oxford. For the
next seven years he resided at Oxford, occupied with the duties of
his chair and with a constantly increasing quantity of biometrical
research. Though he was obviously straining his energies to the
utmost his health and vigour seemed to be unimpaired, and it was
a great shock to his many friends when they heard of his death,
after a very short illness, on April 13th, 1906. He was elected
Fellow of our Society, 4th June 1891, and of the Eoyal Societv
in 1890.
Such is a brief outline of the life of one of the most gifted of
contemporary zoologists : it would take many pages adequately to