George Edward Dobson

Biography Dobson was the eldest son of Parke Dobson and was educated at the Royal School Enniskillen and then at Trinity College, Dublin.

He became an army surgeon after 1867 serving in India and rose to the position of surgeon major. In 1868 he visited the Andaman Islands, collecting zoological specimens for the Indian Museum along with Wood-Mason, and in May 1872 he made ethnological and photographic studies of the Andamanese peoples.

Around 1878, he became curator of the Royal Victoria Museum at Netley.

Achievements Dobson was an expert on small mammals, especially bats (Chiroptera) and Insectivora. He was a member of several scientific societies, the Royal Society (elected 1883), the Linnean Society of London and the Zoological Society of London. He was a corresponding member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and of the Biological Society of Washington.

Works Catalogue of the Chiroptera in Collection of British Museum (1878) Monograph of the Asiatic Chiroptera (1876) A Monograph of the Insectivora, systematic and anatomical (three parts, John Van Voorst, Londres, 1882-1890.

In addition Dobson also contributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica where he wrote the accounts about the vampyre bats, the moles and the shrews.