McGill Libraries
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Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Flower, Stanley Smyth
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1871-1946
History
Stanley Smyth Flower was born on August 21, 1871, in St Giles, Middlesex, England.
He was a zoologist, army officer, science advisor, and conservationist. From a young age, Flower was passionate about natural history and often attended meetings at the Zoological Society. He studied at Rottingdean, Wellington College in Berkshire, and King's College in London. In 1888, he joined the army with the Artists' Rifles. Two years later, he joined the Northumberland Fusiliers and traveled to India and the Straits Settlements. In 1896, Flower became a scientific advisor to the Government of Siam and spent the next two years in Bangkok, where he managed the Zoological Museum.
In 1898, Flower became Director of the Zoological Gardens in Giza, a position he held until he retired in 1924. During these years, he traveled widely, including joining the First Sudd-Cutting Expedition in 1901 as a naturalist. In 1913, Field-Marshall Lord Kitchener sent him to India to report on animals kept in captivity. Flower also set up the Zoological Museum at Giza, founded an aquarium at Gezira, and in 1901, he was named Ranger of Central Africa. He helped organize the Sudan Game department, draft the Game Laws, and protect birds in Egypt. When war broke out in 1914, Flower returned to active service, leading the Transport Corps in the Canal Zone, Sinai, and Southern Palestine. He also served as Inspector of the Interior and Political Officer in Giza during the 1919 insurrection. For his work, he received the O.B.E., the Order of the Nile (3rd Class), and the Medjidich (4th Class).
Following his retirement in 1924, Flower and his family returned to England. He authored many papers and regularly attended scientific meetings of biological societies, including the Linnean Society and the Zoological Society. He was also a member of the British Ornithologists' Club and acted as Chairman from 1930 to 1933.
In 1896, he married Sibylla ("Sibyl") Maria Peckham Wallace (1876-1938). In 1939, he remarried Charlotte Dorothea Stewart (1889-1981). He died on February 3, 1946, in Tring, Hertfordshire, England.