258 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



ROBERT ETHERIDGE. 18191903. 



Robert Etheridge, the eldest son of Thomas and Hannah Etheridge, 

 was born at Ross, in Herefordshire, on December 3, 1819. On his 

 mother's side he was descended from the Pardoes, an old Worcester- 

 shire family, and was a cousin of Dr. John Beddoe, F.R.S. On the 

 other side, his grandfather, who had been a seaman, was, in later life, 

 the Harbour Master at Bristol. To him Robert Etheridge was 

 indebted for many natural " curiosities " from abroad, and thus, while 

 still a boy, he was led to form a little museum of his own, adding, in 

 course of time, to the nucleus of foreign shells and other objects, a 

 series of dried plants, minerals and fossils, all of which were carefully 

 arranged and labelled. 



He received his early education at a private school in Ross, and 

 later on gave assistance to the master, in return for which he was 

 .aided in preparing to enter the University at Cambridge. This project, 

 however, was abandoned, and Robert Etheridge proceeded to Bristol, 

 where, after being engaged for a time in tuition in one of the city 

 schools, he gained more lucrative employment in a business house. 

 During this period his interest in natural history was encouraged. 

 He became acquainted with the Honorary Secretary of the Bristol 

 Philosophical Institution, William Sanders, F.R.S.,* who was then 

 .actively occupied in making a geological map of the neighbourhood. 

 From this painstaking geologist, who was a friend of De la Beche, 

 Robert Etheridge learned his first lessons in field geology, while to 

 .Samuel Stutchbury, who was then Curator of the Museum of Natural 

 History attached to the Bristol Philosophical Institution, and a man 

 41 remarkably skilled in the various branches of natural history," 

 Etheridge must have been greatly indebted for assistance in zoological 

 studies. On the retirement of Stutchbury in 1850, Etheridge was 

 appointed to succeed him as Curator, and this post, which definitely 

 introduced him to scientific work, he held for seven years. During 

 this period he was, for five years, lecturer on Botany in the Bristol 

 Medical School. 



As early as 1848 he had attended a meeting of the Cotteswold 

 Naturalists' Field Club at Gloucester, and his connection with that 

 Club had considerable influence on his future career. He became 

 acquainted with the Earl of Ducie, and, on an eventful meeting at 

 Tortworth Court, he was introduced to Sir Roderick Murchison, then 



* An Obituary of W. Sanders was printed in the " Proc. Bristol Nat. Soc.," 

 ser. 2, vol. i., 1876, p. 503. 



