Obituary. 781 



XXXIX. — Obituary. 

 (Plate IX.) 



Richard Bowen Woosnam. 



The death of Lieut. R. B. Woosnam, killed in action in 

 the Gallipoli Peninsula on June 4 last^ adds another to the 

 increasing list of workers in zoology who have given up 

 their lives for their country in tiie great war. 



Born at Tyn-y-Graig, Builth, Brecknockshire, on the 17th 

 of November, 1880, the son of Bovven Pottiuger Woosnam, 

 he was educated at Wellington College. On the outbreak of 

 the South African War he joined the 4th Welsh Militia, 

 and was thence gazetted to the 2ud Worcester Regiment, 

 with which he served throughout the South African cam- 

 paign. After the war his taste for natural history prevailed 

 against his military ardour, and he resigned his commission. 

 On the outbreak of the present war he joined the 4th 

 Battalion of his old regiment, the Worcesters, and proceeded 

 to the Dardanelles, where he fell on June 4 last. 



One who knew Woosnam intimately writes as follows : — 

 " My acquaintance and subsequent warm friendship with 

 Woosnam dates from the termination of the South African 

 War, in 1903, after he had resigned his commission in the 

 Worcesters. I had previously heard of him in letters from 

 our mutual friend, the late Major Gerald Barrett-Hamilton, 

 who had met him during the South African campaign, and 

 had been much struck by his personal charm and by his 

 unusual ability as a field-naturalist. About the same time 

 I received a letter from Woosnam himself saying that he 

 and a retired brother officer, Mr. R. E. Dent, with a similar 

 taste for natural history, were anxious to make a collecting 

 trip in Cape Colony, and desired to offer their services to the 

 British Museum (Natural History), a proposal which was 

 readily accepted. Their subsequent wanderings resulted in 

 the formation of valuable collections of beautifully pre- 

 pared specimens of mammals and birds from the Kuruman 



