XXV 
WALTER FRANK RAPHAEL WELDON. 1860—1906.* 
WALTER FRANK RAPHAEL WELDON, the elder son of the late Walter Weldon, 
F.R.S., was born at Suffolk Villa, Highgate. We have no record if he 
attended a school there. When his parents removed to Puttley he had, 
as tutor, a neighbouring clergyman. In 1873 he was sent to a boarding- 
school at Caversham, where he remained not quite three years, and from 
which, after some months of private study he matriculated, in 1876, in the 
University of London. In October of that year we find him at University 
College taking classes in Greek, English, Latin, and French, with two courses 
of Pure Mathematics. In the summer term of 1877, physics and appled 
mechanics were studied. During this whole session he also attended Daniel 
Oliver’s general lectures on botany and Ray Lankester’s on zoology. Later 
in the Christmas vacation of 1879, after he had gone up to Cambridge, he 
was for some weeks under Ray Lankester, who set him to work out the 
structure of the gills of the mollusc “ Trigonia.” 
In the autumn of 1877 he transferred himself to King’s College, where he 
stayed for two terms, attending classes in chemistry, mathematics, physics, 
and mechanics, besides the zoology course of A. H. Garrod and the biology 
of G. F. Yeo. Divinity under Barry, at that time compulsory, was also 
taken. At this time Weldon had the medical profession in view. Though 
only entered on the Register of Medical Students on July 6, 1878, there 
can be no question that his course, on the whole, was directed towards the 
Preliminary Scientific Examination of the London M.B. This examination 
he took in December, 1878, after he had gone up to Cambridge; he was 
coached for it by T. W. Bridge, now Professor of Zoology in Birmingham, 
but he had already completed the bulk of the work in his London courses. 
With the Preliminary Scientific, Weldon’s relation with London University 
ceased. In 1877 he attended the Plymouth Meeting of the British Associa- 
tion, and there he was generally to be found in Section D. 
The presence of a life-long friend, who had already gone to Cambridge, 
was, at least, one of the causes which led to Weldon’s entering himself as a 
bye-term student at Cambridge ; and probably his choice of St. John’s 
College was due to Garrod’s influence. He was admitted on April 6, 1878, 
as a pupil of the Rev. 8. Parkinson, D.D. 
At Cambridge Weldon soon found his work more specialised, and he 
rapidly came under new and marked influences. Under the inspiration of 
Balfour, Weldon’s thoughts turned more and more to zoology, and the 
medical profession became less and less attractive. During the years 1879 
and 1880, he worked steadily for his Tripos; in the first year he was given 
* This notice is abstracted (by A. E. S.) from the much longer biography in 
‘Biometrika,’ written by Professor Karl Pearson, with some help from Mr. A. E. Shipley. 
