John William Yerbury

John William Yerbury (30 March 1847 – 10 November 1927) was a British Indian army officer and a naturalist. He collected birds, insects, reptiles, and mollusc specimens during his service across British India, which were sent to the British Museum (Natural History). Numerous species were described in his collections and several were named after him.

Life and work Yerbury was born near Saharanpur, Ambala, where his namesake father Major Yerbury (1804-1858), posted with the 3rd Light Dragoons, was travelling. His mother Emma nee Webb, was travelling on elephant back at the time of his birth according to a family story. The family returned to England around 1854 and lived at Belcombe Court in Bradford-on-Avon. After the death of his father, Yerbury went to Wellington College and in 1862 to Dr William Bridgman's Woolwich Common school.

He collected across taxa. Most of his collections are now in the Natural History Museum in London.

Taxon named in his honor From the molluscs that he collected, several were described as new and named after him by E. A. Smith in 1891 including: Cerithium yerburyi, Strombus yerburyi, Ischnochiton yerburyi, and Cytherea yerburyi. In addition: Hemidactylus yerburii J. Anderson, 1895, also known commonly as the southern leaf-toed gecko, Yerbury's gecko, and Yerburi's leaf-toed gecko, is a species of lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is native to Western Asia.