Anderson, Richard John

Anderson, Richard John (1848–1914), scientist, was born 29 July 1848, second son of Richard Anderson and Elizabeth Anderson (née Harcourt) of Ballybot, Newry, Co. Down. He attended Newry School, and graduated MA and MD from QCB with two gold medals, having won four scholarships or exhibitions in medicine, science, and the classics. He worked in Leipzig, London, Paris, Heidelberg, and Naples; held a public health position 1873–5; and moved to QCG (1875) as demonstrator and later lecturer in anatomy, and finally (1883) professor of natural history, geology, and mineralogy. He published over 300 papers in British and European journals on many biological and scientific topics, particularly vertebrate anatomy. His monographs included Some aspects of Mimicry (1897), Heredity (1898), Flora of Connaught (1905) and The faculties of plants (1910); he also wrote (in verse) Ancient Hibernians and others (1912). He created a zoological museum at QCG and invented a revolving apparatus for the microscope and a device to illustrate crystal forms. He was FRCS and a Fellow of the Linnean Society. He married (1889) Hannah Perry, BA, of Belfast, one of the first women graduates in Ireland; they seem to have resided at Beech Hill House, Newry, even while he was professor at Galway. He died 24 July 1914. His contemporary Alexander Anderson (qv), president of QCG, was apparently not related. Hannah Anderson was a founder of the Connaught Women's Suffrage League in 1913; after her husband died, she trained to become a medical doctor and practised in London for twenty years. Alice Jacqueline Perry (qv) was her niece.