1919-] Obituari/. oSi) 



Jos ]•: P H W 1 Ci L ES WORT H . 



We regret to learn tliat Dr. Wiolesworth met with a fatal 

 accident on or al)out May 16 last at Hurlstone Point in 

 Somerset. He was staying- at Porlock Weir, and on that 

 morning went to Hnrlstone Point to examine a l^eregrine's 

 nest on the cliffs. Nothing more was lieard of him till 

 two days later when his hody was found at the foot of the 

 cliff by a coastguard. From the marks on the body it is 

 supposed that in climbing the cliff Dr. Wiglesworth must 

 have missed liis footing and fallen to the beach below. 



Born in 1853, Wiglesworth was educated for the medical 

 profession at Liverpool and St. Thomas's Hospital in 

 London. He qualified in 187G and obtained his degree 

 of M.D. Univ. Lond. in 1880. He was a specialist in 

 mental diseases, and was for a period President of the 

 Psychological Association and Lecturer on Mental Diseases 

 at the University of Liverpool. For over thirty years he 

 held the post of Medical Superintendent of the Lancashire 

 County Asylum at Rainhill. 



A few years ago he retired and settled at Winscombe 

 in Somerset, and since that time has been devoting himself 

 to the study of the birds of Somersetshire with a view to 

 preparing a work on the subject. Bird-life was his favourite 

 study, and all his spare time was devoted to it. 



His publications, in addition to many valuable j)rofes- 

 sional j)apers and books on mental diseases, include an 

 inaugural address on Flightless Birds, published in the 

 Transactions of the Liverpool Biological Society in 1899, and 

 a little work on St. Kilda and its Birds (Liverpool, 1903). 



Since settling in Somersetshire he had written two studies 

 on the birds of that county — one on the status of the Little 

 Owl, the other on Somerset Heronries, both pu])lished in 

 the Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and 

 Natural History Society and both noticed in our pages, the 

 last on p. 553 of the present number. 



Dr. Wiglesworth was elected a member of the Union 

 in 1898, and his death is a great loss to Somersetshire 

 ornithology. 



si:k. si. — VOL. I. 2 ? 



