249 



IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM CAUUUTHEUS 



(1830-1922) 



WiiiMAM Cakrutieehs WHS borii at Moffat, ])unifriessl»ire, where 

 his father was a iiiercliant, on May 29, 1830, and liis education began 

 at the Academy of tluit place. At the age of fifteen he went to 

 Edinburgh University, where, save for two periods during whicli he 

 was engaged in teaching, lie renrdined until 1854. In the latter half 

 of that year he went to New College, Edinburgh, with the view of 

 entering the ministry of the Presbyterian Churcli ; but, on the advice 

 of Dr. John Fleming, under whom he studied natural science, he 

 resolved to abandon an ecclesiastical for a scientific career. The early 

 bent of his mind, however, and the intluence of his college training, 

 found full expression in his later life. When he came to London he 

 took a leading part in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church : from 

 1880 to 1910 he was first secretary and then chairman of its 

 committee on publications, and from 187G until the year before his 

 death was editor of its magazine, the Messenger for Children ; indeed, 

 there was not one of the standing committees of the Church of which 

 he had not at some tima in his life been an active member. He was 

 keenly interested in ecclesiastical history, particularly that of the 

 Commonwealth ])eriod, and had a large and valuable collection of 

 publications relating thereto. 



After leaving New College, Carruthers became lecturer on botany 

 to the New Veterinary College at Edinburgh. At this period, geology 

 and paliBontology chiefly occupied his attention and afforded the 

 material for his first published papers. He had already made the 

 acquaintance of the leaders of science in Edinburgh ; and it was 

 through John Hiitton Balfour, then Professor of Botany, that he was 

 offered the post of Assistant in the Department of Botan}^ in the 

 British Museum — this had become vacant by the appointment of 

 J. J. Bennett to the Keepership, in succession to Kobert Brown who 

 had died in 1858. The appointment, which was temporarily delaj'ed 

 under circumstances detailed in this Journal for 1876 (p. 101), was 

 made in the following year, in the autumn of which Carruthers entered 

 upon his duties.. He was then the only assistant, as Bennett had been 

 to Bobert Brown, and the work of the Department to a considerable 

 extent devolved upon him. A warm attachment, somewhat inter- 

 rupted by the marriage of Bennett at an advanced age, sprang up 

 between the Keeper and his assistant ; and when the former retired at 

 the end of 1870, Carruthers naturally succeeded to the Keepership, 

 his appointment dating from Feb. 15, 1871. Shortly before this he 

 had been invited by Asa Gray — a frequent visitor to the Department 

 for the purpose of consulting the early American collections there 

 preserved — to join him at Cambridge, Mass., with the view of 

 becoming his successor ; but Carruthers, thougn much attracted by 

 the offer, decided to remain at the Museum. The staff' of the 

 Department had been increased two years before by the appointment 

 of Henry Trimen, who had already done good botanical work, as an 



JOUKKAL OF BOTAXY. VOL. 60. fSErXEMBEE, 1922.] S 



