Everard F. im Thurn

Everard Ferdinand im Thurn (1852 - 9 October 1932) was an author, explorer, botanist, photographer and Governor of Fiji. He was educated at Oxford University, Edinburgh University, and Sydney University. After his education he travelled to British Guiana - called Guyana since its independence from Great Britain - to become the curator of the British Guiana Museum from 1877 to 1882 and later became a Stipendiary Magistrate in Pomeroon.

In December 1884 he led the first successful expedition to the summit of Mount Roraima, in Venezuela's Gran Sabana region, along with Harry Perkins, an Assistant Crown Surveyor who was also living in British Guiana.

Thurn was also a keen photographer and author of several works related to his expedition to Roraima, which were published in scientific journals , including: "The Botany of Roraima Expedition of 1884: being notes on the plants observed; with a list of the species collected, and determinations of those that are new" (Linnean Society, 1887), and "Among the Indians of Guiana: being sketches, chiefly anthropologic from the interior of British Guiana, etc", which includes detailed observations of the Pemon Indians of Venezuela.

He was a well-respected figure in the scientific circles of his time, serving as the President of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1919-1920 and being made an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.

Thurn went on to become a government agent in British Guiana from 1891 to 1899, holding several positions, including: 1st Class Clerk in the Colonial Office from 1899 to 1901, before moving to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor and Colonial Secretary and Fiji where he was governor from 1904 to 1910.

References

*"This article contains content from the defunct wiki, Hierarchypedia, used here under the [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html GNU Free Documentation License] ."
*Im Thurn, E.F. (1885). "The Ascent of Mount Roraima". Proceedings of the Royal Geographic Society VII: 497-521.

External links

* [http://www.lastrefuge.co.uk/data/articles/tepuis/Tepuis_story_page6.html Account of Im Thurn's 1884 ascent of Roraima]