Robert John Lechmere Guppy

Robert John Lechmere Guppy (15 August 1836 in London – 5 August 1916 in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago) was a British-born Trinidad and Tobago naturalist after whom the guppy is named. He contributed much to the geology, palaeontology and zoology of the West Indian region, in particular Trinidad.

Early life Lechmere Guppy was born in Chancery Lane, London, the second child of Robert, a lawyer and Amelia Guppy a painter. When Lechmere was a child his parents purchased a pair of sugar estates in Trinidad and moved there, leaving Lechmere with his maternal grandfather in Kinnersley Castle, Herefordshire, and his siblings Lucy and Francis with their paternal grandparents in Clifton, Bristol.

After the death of his grandfather, Guppy continued to live at Kinnersley Castle with his uncle, John Parkinson, who had inherited the property. Parkinson wanted to make Guppy his chief heir and have him take over the management of the extensive estate. His daughter Yseult later wrote, Guppy was "appalled where almost anyone else might have been delighted", because he wanted to be a scientist. Now considered a junior synonym of Poecilia reticulata, the common name "guppy" still remains.

Guppy married Alice Rostant, the daughter of local French planters and a descendant of the Counts de Rostang, French aristocrats who had fled to Trinidad to escape the French Revolution. he became Trinidad's Chief Inspector of Schools until his retirement in 1891.

Guppy lived at 26 Queens Park West, in Port of Spain, a single-story dwelling raised off the ground on stone pillars, and was located in the most desirable neighbourhood in the town. It faced the Queen's Park Savannah and looked north toward the Governor's House. After the death of his father in November 1894, the family moved to another house nearby after the arrival of a new family in the house next door proved too noisy for him. Lechmere wrote and published numerous articles on the malacology and palaeontology of the region. He served as President of the Scientific Association of Trinidad, as well as of the Royal Victoria Institute Board. He contributed about seventy memoirs or papers between 1863 and 1913. His special interest went to palaeoconchology and recent mollusks, especially the terrestrial and fluviatile species, of which he described many new species.