Colonel Richard Henry Beddome (11 May 1830 - 23 February 1911) was a British military officer in India and a naturalist. He joined the army in India in 1848 and was posted to the 42nd Madras Native Infantry[1] In 1857 he was selected on account of his devotion to botany and natural history as an assistant to Dr Hugh Cleghorn. The first conservator of the newly formed forest department of the Madras presidency. He succeeded him in 1859 and remained Chief Conservator until 1882. He become a member of the University of Madras in 1880. He made many floral studies in India and Ceylon including Trees of the Madras Presidency in 1863 and Handbook of the ferns of British India, Ceylon and Malaya Peninsula in 1892. He also studied reptiles, amphibians and molluscs. His collection of specimens were presented to the British Museum at difficult times and some were also left with the Indian Museum at Calcutta. He retired in 1892 and died at Wandsworth.
References
- ^ Smith, M. A. 1941. Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Amphibia.
