- Albany Hancock
Albany Hancock (1806-1873),
naturalist ,biologist and supporter ofCharles Darwin , was born on Christmas Eve inNewcastle upon Tyne . He is best-known for his works on marine animals and coal-measure fossils.He was educated at The Royal Grammar School, before being articled to a local solicitor. He completed the expected period in articles and passed all the required examinations to become a solicitor himself, even going so far as to acquire an office in Newcastle with a view to establishing his own practice. However his true interests lay elsewhere, and after a brief period of employment with a manufacturing firm, dedicated the rest of his life to his true calling,
natural history .Although he was an enthusiastic amateur naturalist from childhood, his first serious publications did not appear until 1836, when he was 30. These were "Note on the Occurrence of Ranicefis trifurcatus on the Northumberland Coast" and "Note on Falco ruazlies, Regulus ignicafiillus and Larus" in "Jardine's Magazine of Zoology and Botany".
From this slow start, Hancock went on to become one of the foremost naturalists of his day, producing some seventy notable publications.
Hancock was a founder member of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle upon Tyne, and of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club. He was a member of the provisional board that established the College of Physical Science in Newcastle, a Fellow of the
Linnean Society , a corresponding-member of the Zoological Society of London and an honorary member of the Imperial Botanico-Zoological Society of Vienna. He was awarded theRoyal Medal of theRoyal Society in 1858.Albany Hancock was brother to the naturalist John Hancock. The brothers lived with their sister, Mary Jane, at 4 St. Mary’s Terrace, Newcastle, now part of a listed terrace at 14-20 Great North Road.
The
Hancock Museum inNewcastle upon Tyne is named after the Hancock brothers, both of whom took an instrumental part in getting the museum built. The museum contains many specimens from their collections.References
* [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=div&did=HISTSCITECH.0012.0224.0006&isize=text Obituary: "Nature", 20 November, 1873, pp. 43-44] at University of Wisconsin Digital Collection
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