author
Edward Turner Bennett
1797–1836
Best remembered as an energetic early zoologist, he helped shape the scientific world around the young Zoological Society of London while also writing widely on animals and natural history. His life was brief, but his work left a clear mark on 19th-century zoology.
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About the author
Born in Hackney on 6 January 1797, Edward Turner Bennett trained and worked as a surgeon, but zoology was his real passion. He became known as an English zoologist and writer, and he was also the elder brother of the botanist John Joseph Bennett.
In the 1820s, Bennett was involved in efforts to organize a scientific society devoted to natural history; that movement helped lead toward the foundation of the Zoological Society of London. He later served as the society's secretary from 1831 until 1836, a role that placed him close to some of the most important zoological work of his day.
He wrote on a range of animals and contributed to the growing literature of natural history at a time when public and scientific interest in zoology was rapidly expanding. Bennett died in Marylebone on 21 August 1836, only 39 years old, but he is still remembered as one of the active figures in the early institutional life of British zoology.