George Latimer Bates

Who was George Latimer Bates?

George Latimer Bates, LL.D., M.B.O.U. was an American naturalist.

Bates studied at Knox College, Galesburg and at the Chicago Theological Seminary and in 1895 visited West Africa and lived in the south east Cameroon, making a living by farming. He collected natural history specimens in his travels and sent many of these to the Natural History Museum in London.

In 1928 Bates moved to England and wrote a Handbook on the Birds of West Africa. He learned Arabic and visited Arabia in 1934 and studied the ornithology of Arabia. He was unable to publish the work but wrote several papers on Arabian birds for the Ibis. His unpublished manuscript on the Birds of Arabia was later used by Meinertzhagen.