Wilfred Backhouse Alexander

Wilfred Backhouse Alexander (February 4, 1885 - December 8, 1965) was an English ornithologist and entomologist. He was the brother of Horace Alexander.

Alexander was born at Croydon in Surrey and studied Natural Science at Cambridge University. He was Assistant Superintendent at Cambridge Museum of Zoology from 1910 to 1911. In 1912 he went to Australia and worked at the Western Australian Museum in Perth until 1920, when he moved to the Commonwealth Prickly Pear Board in Brisbane. The search for a biological control for the prickly pear involved a number of voyages to South America, and Alexander used his time aboard to observe the seabirds. This resulted in his book "Birds of the Ocean", a forerunner of later field guides. In 1926 he went to work at the American Museum of Natural History. In 1939 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union.

Alexander returned to England in 1929. In 1930 he became director of the newly-formed Oxford Bird Census (later Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology). In 1945 he retired as director and became the Institute's librarian, remaining so until 1955. The donation of his personal collection of bird books had provided the original nucleus of the library, and it was named after him in 1947.

References

* J. Duncan Wood, "Horace Alexander: Birds and Binoculars" ISBN 1-85072-289-7
* [http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P001872b.htm Bright Sparcs Biographical entry]