GOSSE, Philip Henry

This is the well known zoologist, Plymouth Brother and father of Sir Edmund Gosse whose famous autobiographical account of his childhood, Father and Son (first published anonymously in 1907), described in detail his father's fanaticism. Gosse's zoological work focussed in particular on marine biology but in his early life also included Coleoptera. He was born in Worcester the son of Thomas Gosse, a miniature painter and writer. After moving to Coventry and Leicester shortly after birth his parents settled at Poole in Dorset. It was here that Gosse was noticed by Mrs Bell, the mother of Professor Thomas Bell and herself a scientist, who encouraged him to collect sea-anemones and to study insects. After going to school, firstly at Poole and then at Blandford, circumstances took him in the early part of 1827 to a whaler's office in the litle town of Carbonear in Newfoundland where he remained until 1835. It was during these eight years of seclusion that he became fascinated by Natural History. His interest in insects appears to have been given a particular stimulus by the study of microscopy which he took up in 1832 after acquiring a copy of Adams, Essays on the Microscope. After leaving Newfoundland he bought a farm at Compton in Canada where he wrote The Entomology of Newfoundland which still remains unpublished. He then travelled for several years before returning to Liverpool, writing while on the voyage the Canadian Naturalist which was well received on publication in 1840. After setting up in London as a school master and publishing an Introduction to Zoology, 1843, he was hired by the British Museum to undertake the collecting of undescribed birds and insects in Jamaica. He remained there for a year and a half sending home many rare animals of all descriptions. The Coleoptera, amounting to more than 300 specimens, were received by the museum through Mr Cuming in four batches (1845/110, 1846/84, 1847/62, 1848/36). Thenceforth, he devoted his life mainly to non-entomological work and did not travel out of the country again. One of the few entomological publications he did complete, 'On the prehensile Armature of the Papilionidae' appeared just three years before his death. There is a full account of Gosse and bibliography in DNB. See also R.B.Freeman and D. Wertheimer, Philip Henry Gosse: A Bibliography, 1980. (MD 1/03)