Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Coppinger, Richard William

 

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

 

Born: 1847, Dublin, Ireland. Died: 1910, Fareham, England.

 

career:

Got his medical education at Dublin, graduating M.D. in 1870; entered the Medical Department of the Navy, appointed surgeon to the ‘Alert’ in 1875; promoted staff-surgeon and from 1878-82 serving once more on the ‘Alert’ (see below); in 1889 Instructor in Hygiene at the Haslar Naval Hospital at Gosport; in 1901 Inspector-General of hospitals and fleets; in 1904 on half-pay, retiring in 1906.

 

Collecting localities:

Voyage in the ‘Alert’, 1878-82.1 Under command of Capt. Sir G. Nares (cf. sub MacLear). Sailing from Plymouth (Sept. 25, 1878), and proceeding to the Pacific Ocean by way of Straits of Magellan; for a longer time in the waters of the Tahiti and Fiji Islands; Sydney (Jan. 23-Apr. 16, 1881); E. coast of Australia; Thursday Isl. (4 months’ stay), surveying Prince of Wales Canal, visiting many islands S of New Guinea, e.g.: Horn, Prince of Wales, Hammond, Fitzroy, Goode, Possession, West and Booby Isl.; leaving Torres Strait (Oct. 1), and via Port Darwin and Singapore (Nov. 18-Febr. 5, 1882), homeward bound; Plymouth (Sept. 3, 1882).

 

collections:

Herb. Kew [K]; including 90 nos from Australia, among which possibly plants from the islands S of New Guinea.

Zoological collections in Brit. Museum.

 

literature:

(1) R.W. Coppinger: ‘Cruise of the Alert. Four years in Patagonian, Polynesian and Mascarene Waters (1878-82)’ (London 1885, 4th ed.).

Only the zoological results were published: ‘Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean during the voyage of H.M.S. Alert, 1881-82’ (London 1884). Cf. also Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881.

 

biographical data:

Dict. Nat. Biogr. 2nd Suppl., vol 1, 1912.