George Bowdler Buckton

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

George Bowdler Buckton
Main-group organometallic chemistry
Spouse
Mary Ann Odling
​
(m. 1867)​
ChildrenAlice Buckton
Scientific career
FieldsEntomology
Chemistry
InstitutionsRoyal College of Chemistry

George Bowdler Buckton (24 May 1818,

entomologist who specialised in aphids
.

Early life

Buckton was born in London and lived in

Prerogative Court of Canterbury) and Eliza Buckton (née Merricks, 1786 - 1842). At the age of five he had an accident which left him partially paralysed for life and so was privately educated. He became however a scholar of classics and was an accomplished musician and painter. After his father's death he moved to Queen's Road, West London, and In 1848 he became an assistant to August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1818-1892) at the nearby Royal College of Chemistry in London. In 1867 he married Mary Ann Odling (1831 – 1927), the sister of William Odling with whom he had written his last chemical paper. He designed his house at Haslemere and built an astronomical observatory there. His eldest daughter was the poet Alice Buckton and Alfred, Lord Tennyson lived nearby.[1][2][3]

Chemistry

Buckton's first paper, on reactions of

tetra-ethyl lead.[6] His last paper on chemistry, on trimethyl- and triethylaluminium, appeared in 1865 co-authored with William Odling.[7] Much of his research on alkylmetal compounds has been reviewed by modern authors.[8][9] [9] He joined the Chemical Society in 1852 and was elected to the Royal Society in 1857[2]

Entomology

Buckton wrote scientific papers on chemistry until 1865 when he moved to Haslemere and continued a childhoold interest in insects (that had been sparked after meeting

Linnaean Society in 1845 and the Entomological Society in 1883. In the field of entomology, he wrote several works:[10][11]

Personality

Apart from his interests in science, Buckton was a musician and a watercolour artist. He took an interest in physics as well and built a Wimshurst machine after it was described in 1883. He was considered a master of exposition and taught his own children until they were ten years old.[1]

Alfred Lord Tennyson had asked Buckton through William Allingham 'How can evolution account for the ant?' and Buckton had responded that the theory had difficulties. Tennyson remembered on Buckton's death that he had "Truly a devoted, spiritual, knightly nature, with a faith as clear as the height of the pure blue heaven."[1] The genus Bucktoniella Evans, 1966 is named in his honour.[12]

References

  1. ^
    JSTOR 80046
    .
  2. ^
    ISSN 0368-1645
    .
  3. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32160
    .
  4. ISSN 1743-6893
    .
  5. ISSN 0261-0523
    .
  6. ISSN 0370-1662
    .
  7. ISSN 0370-1662
    .
  8. ISSN 0276-7333
    .
  9. ISSN 0021-9584
    .
  10. ^ Loxdale, Hugh (2004). "Who was… George Bowdler Buckton?". Biologist. 51 (1): 41–42.
  11. ^ Doncaster, J. P. (1974). "G B Buckton's work on Aphidoidea (Hemiptera)". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology). 28: 25–109.
  12. ISSN 2644-0687
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Bowdler_Buckton&oldid=1200274830"