Sir William Flower

CHAPTER I. General Sketch of Flower’s Life

GENERAL SKETCH OF FLOWER’S LIFE

Born on 30th November 1831 at his father’s house, “The Hill,” Stratford-on-Avon, William Henry Flower was a man who had the rare good fortune not only to make a profession of the pursuit he loved best, but likewise to attain the highest possible success in, and to be appointed to the most important and influential post connected with that profession. As he tells us in that delightful book, Essays on Museums, he was pleased to designate as a “museum” when a boy at home a miscellaneous collection of natural history objects, kept at first in a cardboard box, but subsequently housed in a cupboard. And as a man he became the respected head of the greatest Natural History Museum in the British Empire, if not indeed in the whole world. Very significant of his future attention to details and of the importance he attached to recording the history of every specimen received in a museum, is the fact that he compiled a carefully drawn-up catalogue of his first boyish collection.

This early and persistent taste for natural history was not, as we learn from the same collection of essays, inherited from any member of either his father’s or his mother’s family, but appears to have been an “idiopathic” development. His isolated position in this respect may, perhaps, have caused Flower in later life to notice more specially than might otherwise have been the case, how comparatively rare is the development of an ingrained taste for natural history among the adult members of the British nation. This idea was exemplified by his remarking on one occasion to the present writer that he often wondered how many persons out of every thousand he passed casually in the street, or met in social intercourse, had the slightest sympathy with, or took any real interest in the subjects which formed his own favourite pursuits and lines of thought.

As regards his parentage, his father was the late Edward Fordham Flower, who was a Justice of the Peace for his county, and from whom the son inherited his tall and stately figure and dignified bearing. Edward Flower, who was a partner in the well-known brewery at Stratford-on-Avon, was the eldest son of Richard Flower, of Marden Hill, Hertfordshire, who married Elizabeth, daughter of John Fordham, of Sandon Bury, in the same county. In 1827 Edward married Celina, daughter of John Greaves, of Radford Semele, Warwickshire, by whom he had, with other issue, Charles Edward, late of Glencassly, Sutherlandshire, and William Henry, the subject of the present memoir.

Edward Fordham Flower was noted not only for his philanthropy, but for his efforts to abolish the bearing-rein, which in his time was neither more nor less than an instrument of downright torture to all carriage horses. As the result of his efforts in this direction, was founded in 1890, by Mr. C. H. Allen, of Hampstead, a small local society for that district and Highgate, having for its object the abolition, or at all events the mitigated use, of the bearing-rein for draught-horses of all descriptions. That body did good work in this direction for many years in the north of London; and by its means the Hampstead Vestry was induced to prohibit the use of the bearing-rein on the horses in its employ—an example subsequently followed by many large coal-owners and others connected with horses.

From this small beginning arose in 1897 the now flourishing society known as the Anti-Bearing Rein Association, of which, as was appropriate, Mr. Archibald Flower, a grandson of Edward Fordham Flower, became Co.-Hon. Secretary with Mr. Allen, while the late Duke of Westminster, and the late Sir W. H. Flower (the subject of this biography) respectively accepted the positions of Patron and President.

In all the obituary notices it is stated that William Henry was the second son of Edward Fordham and Celina Flower. This, however, as I am informed by Mr. Arthur S. Flower (the eldest son of Sir William), is not strictly the case. As an actual fact, the eldest son of the aforesaid Edward and Celina was really Richard, who died in infancy, so that Charles, who was born second, grew up as the eldest son, and William Henry as the second, whereas he was really the third.

The fair-haired and blue-eyed William not being intended to succeed his father in the business, was permitted from his early years—fortunately for zoological science—to pursue that innate love of natural history which, as we have seen, developed itself in very early years and continued unabated till the close of his career. That career naturally divides into three epochs. Firstly, the period of boyhood and early manhood; secondly, the long period of official life at the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons; and thirdly, the time during which the subject of this memoir occupied the post of Director of the Natural History Branch of the British Museum, together with the short interval which elapsed between his resignation of that position and his untimely death. To each of the latter periods a separate chapter is devoted. It has, however, been found convenient, instead of restricting the present chapter to the first epoch, to include within its limits a general sketch of Flower’s whole life. A fourth chapter is assigned to the period during which he was President of the Zoological Society of London, although this was synchronous with part of the period covered by the second, and with the whole of that treated of in the third chapter. Finally, the full description of his scientific work is reserved for subsequent chapters.

According to information kindly furnished by his widow, Lady Flower, delicate health prevented William Flower from being much at school during his boyhood, and he was thus largely dependent upon his mother—a sensible and well-read woman—for his early education. He was also in the habit of accompanying his father in his rides, whereby he became much interested in all that concerns horses and their well-being. Best of all, as regards opportunity for developing a love of animal life, he was in the habit of taking long, solitary rambles in the country, thereby acquiring a knowledge of Nature which could be obtained in no other manner, and developing his powers of observation.

This innate taste for natural history appears to have been further fostered in early life by frequent intercourse with the late Rev. P. B. Brodie, an enthusiastic zoologist and geologist; but whether this took place during school or college life the writer has no means of knowing. Be this as it may, it appears that after a preliminary education, partly at home and partly at private schools, Flower matriculated at London University in 1849, (the year of his present biographer’s birth), attaining honours in Zoology; and that during the same year having made up his mind to adopt the study and practice of Medicine, or of Surgery as a profession, he entered the Medical Classes at University College and became a pupil at the Middlesex Hospital. It was apparently largely, if not entirely, owing to his fondness for zoology that young Flower selected Medicine as a profession, since at the time, as indeed for many years subsequently, this was practically the only career open to young naturalists devoid of sufficient private means whereby they might hope to be able to devote a certain amount of time and attention to the pursuits—and more especially Comparative Anatomy—towards which their inclinations tended.

At University College Flower had a distinguished career, gaining the gold medal in Dr. Sharpey’s class of Physiology and Anatomy, and the silver medal in Zoology and Comparative Anatomy; the gold medal in the latter subjects having been carried off the same year by his fellow-student, Joseph Lister, who in after years became the distinguished surgeon, and, as Lord Lister, was for some time President of the Royal Society of London. In 1851—the year of the Great Exhibition—Flower passed his first M.B. examination at London University, coming out in the first division. In the same year he made a tour in Holland and Germany, while in 1853 visited France and the north of Spain; bringing home in both instances numerous sketches in pencil and sepia of the scenery and people of the countries traversed.

In all the obituary notices of Flower that have come under the present writer’s notice, it is stated that he obtained the post of Curator of the museum of the Middlesex Hospital after his return from the Crimea. This is, however, proved to be incorrect by his first zoological paper, “On the Dissection of a Species of Galago,” which was contributed to the Zoological Society of London in 1852, and appeared in the Proceedings of that body for the same year, where the author describes himself as the holder of the post in question. As a matter of fact, he was elected Curator in 1854, and resigned the post in 1854.

Flower never took the degree of M.D., but three years after passing his M.B. he became (on 27th March 1854) a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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