Percy Lowe

Percy Roycroft Lowe (1870 to 1948) was an English surgeon who became one of the leading ornithologists of his generation. Born at Stamford in Lincolnshire, he studied medicine at Jesus College, Cambridge, and served as a civil surgeon in the Second Boer War, where his interest in birds began. He then worked as private physician to Sir Frederick Johnstone, whose constant travel let him observe birds around the world. In the First World War he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps and commanded the Princess Christian Ambulance Train, earning the OBE in 1920. From 1919 to 1935 he was Curator of Birds at the Natural History Museum, edited the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club and presided over the British Ornithologists' Union. His 1936 paper on the Galapagos finches introduced the name Darwin's finches.