Wilfred Hudleston Hudleston

Wilfred Hudleston Hudleston (né Simpson) (2 June 1828 – 29 January 1909) was an English geologist, ornithologist and paleontologist.

Life

Hudleston was born at York on 2 June 1828. He was the eldest son of John Simpson of Knaresborough (the third in succession to practise medicine) and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Ward of Dore House, near Handsworth. His mother was an heiress through her mother, Eleanor Hudleston (died 1856), of the family of Hudleston of Hutton John, Cumberland. Wilfred, who with the rest of his family assumed the surname of Hudleston by royal licence in 1867, was educated first at St Peter's School, York, and afterwards at Uppingham, proceeding to St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1850 and M.A. in 1853.

At Cambridge, he was interested chiefly in ornithology, which he had begun to study at school. In 1855 he spent a summer in Lapland, collecting with Alfred Newton and John Woolley. After visiting Algeria and the eastern Atlas with Henry Baker Tristram and Osbert Salvin, he spent more than a year in Greece and Turkey adding to his collections. From 1862 to 1867, he systematically studied natural history and chemistry, attending courses of lectures at the University of Edinburgh, and afterwards at the Royal College of Chemistry in London. Undecided at first whether to make chemistry or geology his chief subject, he was drawn to the latter by the influence of John Morris.