Thomas Blakiston

Who was Thomas Blakiston?

Thomas Wright Blakiston was an English explorer and naturalist.

Born in Lymington, Hampshire, England, Blakiston was the son of Major John Blakiston, second son of Sir Matthew Blakiston, 2nd Baronet. His mother was Jane, daughter of Reverend Thomas Wright, Rector of Market Bosworth, Leicestershire. Blakiston explored western Canada with the Palliser Expedition between 1857 and 1859. Mount Blakiston, the highest point in Waterton Lakes National Park was named for him in 1858. In 1861 he traveled up the Yangtze River in China, going further than any Westerner before him. He spent the next part of his life in Japan and became one of the major naturalists in that country. He moved to the United States in 1885. Blakiston died aged 58 of pneumonia in October 1891 while in San Diego, California and is buried in Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio.

Blakiston was the first person to notice that animals in Hokkaidō, Japan's northern island, were related to northern Asian species, whereas those on Honshū to the south were related to those from southern Asia.