Sir Philip Grey Egerton, 10th Baronet

Who was Sir Philip Grey Egerton, 10th Baronet?

Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, 10th Baronet FRS was an English palaeontologist and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1830 and 1881.

Egerton was the son of Sir Philip Grey Egerton, 9th Baronet and his wife Rebecca Du Pre, daughter of Josias Du Pre of Wilton Park, Beaconsfield. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated BA in 1828. While at college his interest in geology was aroused by the lectures of William Buckland, and by his acquaintance with William D. Conybeare. He inherited the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1829. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1831, and was a trustee of the British Museum.

While travelling in Switzerland with Lord Cole they were introduced to Prof. L Agassiz at Neufchâtel, and determined to make a special study of fossil fish. During the course of fifty years they gradually gathered together two of the largest and finest of private collections—that of Sir Philip Grey Egerton being at Oulton Park, Tarporley, Cheshire.