George Morrison Reid Henry

Who was George Morrison Reid Henry?

George Morrison Reid Henry was an entomologist and ornithologist in Sri Lanka.

He was born at Goatfell Estate, Kandapola, Sri Lanka where his father, Charles Reid Henry, managed tea estates. He was one of eleven children and was educated at home by his older sisters. He showed an early talent as an artist and obtained his first job as a draughtsman and a laboratory assistant in the Ceylon Company of Pearl Fishers in 1907 at the age of 16. In 1910 he became a draughtsman at the Colombo Museum and was trained by Dr. Joseph Pearson, Director of the Colombo Museum, who was a zoologist and marine biologist. In July 1913 he was promoted to the newly created post of Assistant in Systematic Entomology at the Colombo Museum, a post he held until his retirement in 1946. George Henry married Olive Hobday in September 1917. His elder son, Bruce Charles Reid Henry, was born on 22 July 1918 and his younger son David Morrison Reid Henry was born on 14 September 1919. Both sons inherited George's talent for drawing and David became a fine bird and wildlife artist. Olive died in 1969.