Members at our 2007 BBQ

Cardiff
Naturalists' Society


Cymdeithas Naturiaethwyr
Caerdydd

 

 

Professor James Brough D.Sc., F.R.S.E (?-1988) 83rd President


Back to the 150th Anniversary index

Go Back to last page visited

Brough's honours degree, from Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne, was in geology which led to some surprise when hw was appointed professor of zoology and comparative anatomy in University College, Cardiff, to follow late Prof. Walter Medley Tattersall 58th President in 1944. he held the post for 25 years until his retirement in 1969

He had taught in Manchester and Edinburgh and was a specialist in the evolutionary history of the bony fishes and travelled far and wide, adding to his material by collecting in South Africa and Rhodesia, in the Austrian Alps, in northern Italy and in Spitsbergen as well as studying in London and Edinburgh, in Stockholm, Paris, Frankfurt and Milan. During the War, he had assisted the Ministry of Food by acting as insect infestation inspector for the south-east district of Scotland.

He had been a member of the Manchester Literary and Philospohical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh so it was only Natural for him to join the premier scientific society of the area when he came to Cardiff.

Some of his papers from his early years are: -

  1. On Fossil Fishes from the Karroo System, and some General Considerations on the Bony Fishes of the Triassic Period - Proceedings Of The Zoological Society Of London Volume 101, Issue 1, April 1931,
  2. On the Structure of certain Catopterid Fishes - Proceedings Of The Zoological Society Of London, Volume 104, Issue 3, September 1934,
  3. On The Evolution Of Bony Fishes During The Triassic Period - Biological Reviews, Volume 11, Issue 3 July 1936

Dr M.Brough (Mrs)

It is often said that "behind every great man there is a great woman", and as has already been shown in these pages the presidents ladies (wives and daughters) have been as successful academically and have contributed as much to the society and to science as each other. This is no more evident than in the brough family where both Margaret and James Brough held a number of posts within the society and they both also published scientific papers [both individually and together] including

Brough, M. C. & Brough, J. 1967. Studies on early tetrapods. I. The Lower Carboniferous microsaurs. II. Microbrachis, the type microsaur. III. The genus Gephyrostegus. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 252, 107-165.

In the Transactions for the Report For The Year 1971-72 Margarets' passing is recorded "The Council records with deep regret the death of Mrs. M. Brough, PH.D., D.Sc. in October "



Back to the 150th Anniversary index

Before this... Hubert Newman Savory M.A., F.S.A (1911-2001) 82nd President

Next up... G. T. "Jeff" Jefferson 84th President

See our Full list of Presidents

These pages are part of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society 150th Anniversary celebrations and are about our history and are celebrating the people who developed our Society and helped build the city and the cultural heritage of Cardiff. You can read more about that using the links above

If you want to read about the ways we study the wildlife and environment of the Cardiff area and its surroundings, and about the talks we have about the wildlife of the world, and find the programme of talks, walks and other events that we do then please take a look at our main website, our blog and our facebook and twitter feeds for up to date news