FREDERICK HAMILTON DAVEY. 



Frederick Hamilton Davey, the son of Stephen Henry 

 Davey, was born at Ponsanooth, in the Kennal Vale, in the 

 parish of Perran-ar-worthal, West Cornwall, on September 10th, 

 1868. He was educated at the village school, and, as his parents 

 had a large family and a very limited income, he had to leave 

 school at the early age of eleven, and went to work at the 

 Kennal Powder Mills. It was then that his education really 

 commenced, for, as far as circumstances would permit, he read 

 wisely and widely. Then, first under the inspiration of his 

 father, to whose memory he dedicated the Flora, and afterwards 

 of Canon Saltern Rogers, vicar of the neighbouring parish of 

 Gwennap, who conducted a class for boys, he devoted himself 

 to Nature Study, and soon became fond of wandering in the 

 lanes and fields in his spare time by day, and reading such 

 Nature books as he could get hold of in the evenings. 



Although a somewhat delicate lad, things seemed to be 

 going well with him until he was seventeen, when he had his 

 first attack of rheumatic fever, which left a permanent defect 

 in his heart. This, however, did not check him, for, during his 

 long convalescence, he continued his studies, and kept a Formi- 

 cary, from which he learnt much about Ants and their habits. 

 He had another attack of rheumatic fever at the age of 23, and 

 soon afterwards developed a chronic appendicitis. Still, nothing 

 seemed to discourage him. From reading he advanced to 

 writing, and, in 1891, he contributed his first paper to the Royal 

 Cornwall Polytechnic Society, on the Rushes, Sedges and 

 Grasses of the Kennal Vale and neighbourhood, illustrated by 

 a series of well-selected and mounted specimens. This was 

 followed, between 1892 and 1898, by papers on the Birds nesting 

 in the same locality, Microscopic Studies, the Flora of Kennal 

 Vale, and Artificial Formicaries. For these five papers he 

 received a bronze and four silver medals. 



