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Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Aubinn, St. Thomas David
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
St. J d'Aubinn
S.T.D. Aubinn
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
St. Thomas David Aubinn was a prominent indigenous natural history collector who worked along the Gold Coast, now Ghana, during the 1870s. Renowned for his expertise as a local specimen collector, he conducted extensive fieldwork in inland regions such as Denkyira and Fantee. Working under Herbert Taylor Ussher, the British administrator based at Cape Coast Castle, Aubinn ventured into dense forests to obtain, prepare, and preserve rare zoological specimens for scientific study. His expertly prepared bird skins became part of the celebrated Shelley and Sharpe collections, now housed in the British Museum of Natural History. His contributions were further recognized when a West African mammal collected by him in the Fanti region was named in his honour: Aubinn's, or the Slender-tailed, Squirrel.