INTRODUCTION, xxi 
Mrs. SLADEN 
AND 
THE PERCY SLADEN MEMORIAL FUND. 
By Henry Bury, M.A., F.L.S. 
ConsTANCE SLADEN, daughter of the late William Charles Anderson, Surgeon, and 
sometime Sheriff of York, was born in 1848. A woman of cultivated tastes, she devoted 
much attention to art, in the study of which she paid frequent visits to Spain and Italy, 
while several of her pictures were exhibited at different times in various London and 
provincial Galleries. She had also an extensive and accurate acquaintance with the 
archeology of her native county, and wrote the article on York Minster in Cassell’s 
‘Cathedral Churches of England,’ then edited by Prof. Bonney, F.R.S., as well as 
descriptions of Selby Abbey and Castle Howard. In 1904, when the alteration of the 
Charter and Bye-Laws of the Linnean Society permitted the admission of women, 
Mrs. Sladen was one of the first to avail herself of the opportunity, and was elected a 
Fellow of the Society on December 15th, 1904. 
Her acquaintance with Percy Sladen, in the early eighties, led immediately to a warm 
attachment, and their union, though delayed for nearly twenty years, was one of 
unclouded happiness during the short period that it lasted. After her husband’s death 
in 1900 she was anxious to find a means of perpetuating his memory and his devotion 
to the cause of Science; but though several schemes were proposed and discussed with 
her friends, it was not until 1904 that it was finally decided to set aside the sum of 
£20,000 as the endowment of a trust for the furtherance of Scientific Research, more 
particularly in Biology, Geology, and Anthropology. The following were appointed 
Trustees :—Dr. Tempest Anderson, Mr. Henry Bury, Prof. William Abbott Herdman, 
Prof. George Bond Howes *, Mr. Thomas Bailey Saunders, and Dr. Henry Woodward, 
and their first meeting was held in Mrs. Sladen’s house, 13 Hyde Park Gate,-on June 
29th, 1904. 
Up to that time she had been a woman of exceptional health and energy, and, 
indeed, seemed to be possessed of a remarkably strong constitution; but early in the 
following year, after, if not as the result of, a severe attack of influenza, she fell a 
victim to an obscure disease; and, after many months of acute suffering, passed away 
at Exeter on Jan. 17th, 1906, in the 58th year of her age. 
The Trustees of the “ Percy Sladen Memorial Fund,” thus endowed by Mrs. Sladen> 
are allowed wide discretionary powers in its administration f, but their policy has been 
to devote the greater part of the income at their disposal to the maintenance or 
assistance of important exploring expeditions. At their meeting on February 38rd, 1905, 
* The death of Prof. Howes, who had been prevented by ill-health from attending any of the meetings of the 
Trustees, occurred on February 4th, 1905, to the deep regret of all his colleagues. 
+ Applications to the Trustees should be made through their Secretary, c/o The Linnean Society of London. 
