Henry H. Slater

Henry Horrocks Slater (1851–26 November 1934) was an English parson-naturalist who studied ornithology, entomology, and botany.

Early life and clerical career Slater was born in Stanhope, County Durham, the son of the priest Henry Slater and his wife Mary Sarah Horrocks. He was matriculated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge in 1870, and graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1880 (made Master of Arts in 1887). In 1879 he was ordained a deacon in Ripon, West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1881 he was ordained as a priest. From 1879 to 1882 he was chaplain in Sharow, near Ripon, and from 1882 to 1883 he was chaplain in Chearsley, Buckinghamshire. From 1883 to 1893 he was vicar of Irchester. From 1893 to 1906 he was rector of Thornhaugh, Northamptonshire. He retired at Bishops Lydeard and died there in 1934.

Natural history work

In 1874 he accompanied the botanist Isaac Bayley Balfour and aboard HMS Shearwater on an expedition to observe the transit of Venus on the island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean. In addition to studies of the flora and fauna, Slater excavated the subfossil bones of extinct birds, including the Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) and Rodrigues starling (Necropsar rodericanus). but he resigned from both organizations in 1906, when he left Thornhaugh.