Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell

Who was Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell?

Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell, the biologist, physician and author, was the only son of the architect Herbert Spurrell and Harriet Rebecca Blaxland. He was a nephew of the archaeologist Flaxman Charles John Spurrell and a member of the Spurrell family of Norfolk.

A student of Gustav Mann, Spurrell went on to discover and classify fish, reptiles and frogs from the Gold Coast and South America, and was a Fellow of the Zoological Society. Among the species named after him are Spurrell's Free-tailed Bat and Spurrell's Woolly Bat.

During the First World War he served as a Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps; he died of pneumonia at Alexandria, Egypt, on 8 November 1918.

He was also the author of a number of books, both scientific and fictional:

The Commonwealth of Cells: Some popular essays on human physiology, 1901, Bailliere, Tindall & Cox

Out of the Past, 1903, Greening

At Sunrise: A story of the Beltane, 1904, Greening

Patriotism: A biological study, 1911, George Bell & Sons

Modern Man and his Forerunners: A short study of the human species living and extinct, 1917, George Bell & Sons