John Thomas Pearson

John Thomas Pearson (22 August 1801 – 5 March 1851) was a British surgeon who worked in the East India Company in India. He also briefly served as a curator of the museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Pearson received his MRCS in 1825 became an assistant surgeon in Bengal in 1826 and rose to the rank of surgeon in 1841.[1] During the time that he was posted in Darjeeling, he took a keen interest in the local zoology, sending specimens to England for identification. Belomys pearsonii was named after him by his friend from medical student days, J. E. Gray in 1842.[2] Rhinolophus pearsonii was named after him by Horsfield in 1851.

Pearson was made curator of the Asiatic Society in July 1833 and held the position till 1835 as a favour to James Prinsep. During this period he described the hispid hare, and a new species of kingfisher Pelargopsis amauroptera.[3][4] This was a period of flux at the Asiatic Society of Bengal and there were complaints from a Dr William Jameson that Pearson had not maintained the museum in order.[5]

He married Frances Fitzpatrick at Calcutta on 7 March 1827.[6] He died at Barrackpur.[1]

References
  1. Crawford, D.G. (1930). Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615-1930. Volume I. London: W. Thacker & Co. p. 91.
  2. Gray, J.E. (1842). "Descriptions of some new genera and fifty unrecorded species of Mammalia". The Annals and Magazine of Natural History; Zoology, Botany, and Geology. 10: 255–267.
  3. Pearson, J. T. (1841). "Catalogue of the birds in the museum of the Asiatic Society". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 10 (2): 628–660.
  4. Pearson, J. T. (1839). "Observations on the "Report on the museum of the Asiatic Society, by Dr. Wm. Jameson," published in the Journal for March, 1839". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 8: 419–429.
  5. Jameson, William (1839). "Report on the Museum of the Asiatic Society". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 8: 241–244.
  6. The Quarterly Oriental Magazine, Review, and Register, Part 76, Volume 7. Thacker and Company. 1827. p. 55.
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