Walter Percy Sladen (30 June 1849 – 11 June 1900) was an English biologist who specialised in starfish.
The son of a wealthy leather merchant, Sladen was born near Halifax, Yorkshire on 30 June 1849. He was educated at Hipperholme Grammar School and Marlborough College, but received no university training. As a young man he indulged in his hobby of natural history, but soon became fascinated with echinoderms. In 1876 he was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, and the following year became a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. 1877 also saw the publication of his first paper, in which he split the sea-lily genus Poteriocrinus into four; in his lifetime, Sladen would gain a reputation as a "splitter" because of his proclivity for declaring specimens to belong to new genera or species. Late that year he began a long and fruitful collaboration with Duncan; which would see the publication of some 15 co-authored papers, many on fossils, over twelve years.
The Percy Sladen collection of echinoderms is one of the most significant outside any national collection. Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter[1]
From December 1878, Sladen spent three months at Naples under the auspices of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. His work there, on echinoderm pedicellariae, established his reputation as a leading authority on echinoderms, and in 1881 he was invited to o and write up an account of the starfishes collected during the Challenger expedition. This would take him a decade to complete, and comprise nearly 1000 pages and 118 plates.
By 1890, Sladen married Constance Anderson of York. She was the sister of Tempest Anderson the volcanologist, and Yarborough Anderson, a barrister.
Her father William Charles Anderson was a surgeon and Sheriff of York.
By that time Sladen was on the Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Zoological Secretary of the Linnean Society of London, and also active in the Zoological Society of London and the Geological Society of London. He therefore relocated to London, at least temporarily. Unfortunately, much of Sladen's later life was interrupted by poor health. In 1895 he was elected Vice-President of the Linnean Society, but only a few months later he gave up both this and his secretarial position because of health problems. He completed only two more papers before retiring in 1898 to an Exeter estate inherited on the death of his uncle. He died there two years later, on 11 June 1900.
Following his death, Sladen's wife helped preserve her husband's memory by donating his large collection of echinoderms to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, and endowing the Percy Sladen Memorial Trust, to be administered by the Linnean Society to support scientific research.
^Rowe, F. W. E. (1 September 1974). "Catalogue of the Sladen Collection in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, Devon". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 6 (3): 179–243. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1974.tb00722.x.
Walter PercySladen (30 June 1849 – 11 June 1900) was an English biologist who specialised in starfish. The son of a wealthy leather merchant, Sladen was...
The PercySladen Memorial Trust is a trust fund administered by the Linnean Society of London for the support of scientific research. It was endowed by...
Mount Sladen, on Coronation Island PercySladen Memorial Trust, a trust fund administered by the Linnean Society in memory of PercySladenSladen's barbet...
The PercySladen Trust Expeditions to the Abrolhos Islands were two scientific expeditions, conducted in 1913 and 1915 under the leadership of Professor...
Indian entomologist Samarendra Maulik, from specimens collected by the PercySladen Trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean in 1908. The generic name comes...
first female members of the Linnean Society of London and founded the PercySladen Memorial Trust in memory of her late husband. Constance Anderson was...
Sealark were assigned to the Indian Ocean expedition sponsored by the PercySladen Trust, which was led by J. Stanley Gardiner. Somerville took part in...
paymaster until he retired in 1915. While in the navy, he joined the PercySladen Trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean and was appointed Imperial Entomologist...
52 (4): 444–451. doi:10.1093/aesa/52.4.444. Eaton, A.E. (1913). "The PercySladen Trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean in 1905. Diptera Psychodidae". Transactions...
unranked groupings (see artificial taxonomy). A few years later, in 1889, PercySladen counted 48 or 49 species in the genus. He split the genus into at least...
(Myobatrachus gouldii) were collected from the Houtman Abrolhos during the PercySladen Trust Expedition of 1913 and 1915, but no amphibians have been recorded...
number of expeditions to collect material for the museum including the PercySladen Trust Expedition to the Abrolhos Islands in 1913. He became Honorary...
Several expeditions followed, the most significant of which was the PercySladen Expedition aboard Sealark[which?] in 1905, when Gardiner[which?] made...
Pelham, cell biologist Philip Sheppard, geneticist and lepidopterist PercySladen, marine zoologist Edward Thompson, steam locomotive engineer Thomas Valintine...
includes specimens of invertebrates and mammals from across the world. PercySladen's collection of echinoderms is held by the museum and considered the most...
training in hand, he was picked by W.H.R. Rivers to accompany him on the PercySladen Trust Expedition to the Solomon Islands in 1908. Their ethnographic work...
family planning, Marie Stopes, the philanthropist Constance Sladen, founder of the PercySladen Memorial Trust and Alice Laura Embleton (1876–1960), biologist...
Indian entomologist Samarendra Maulik, from a specimen collected by the PercySladen Trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean in 1908. The generic name comes...
southwards to the South China Sea. The species was first described by PercySladen in 1889. Sladen does not specify the etymology of the specific epithet, but states...
by the construction of a new aerodrome. In this she was funded by the PercySladen Memorial Fund. Her resulting three-volume excavation report came to be...
Kaoko-Veld, South-West Africa, obtained during Captain Shortridge's fifth PercySladen and Kaffrarian Museum Expedition". Proceedings of the Zoological Society...
On the Pontoniinae in 1917, based on material collected by the 1905 PercySladen Trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean, led by John Stanley Gardiner. He...
the Lepidoptera collected at Chapada, Matto Grosso, by Mr. A. Robert (PercySladen Expedition to Central Brazil) Proceedings of the Zoological Society of...
Herbarium, succeeding Pearson who moved to the Bolus Herbarium 1911 Joined PercySladen Memorial Expedition to the Kamiesberge 1913 Field work on Leribe Plateau...
Lophiiformes. The Celebes monkfish has the genus name Sladenai which honours PercySladen, the British echinoderm biologist. The holotype of S. gardineri was collected...
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