Fleure, H. J. (Herbert John), 1877-1969

Person

Fleure, H. J. (Herbert John), 1877-1969

Herbert John Fleure (1877-1969), zoologist and geographer, was born in Guernsey on 6 June 1877. He was the son of John Fleure (1803-1890) and Marie (née Le Rougetel). In 1897, he obtained a scholarship to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. He founded the Student Representative Council, published articles in the college magazine and obtained a first-class honours degree in zoology in 1901. He was awarded a fellowship to further his marine biology studies at the Zoological Institute Zurich, Switzerland, 1902-1904, and gained a D.Sc. (Wales). He returned to Aberystwyth as a lecturer in botany, geology and zoology, 1904-1917, Head of the Department of Zoology, 1908-1910, and the first and only Professor of Anthropology and Geography, 1917-1930. He was the first Professor of Geography at Victoria University, Manchester, 1930-1944. In 1905, he began an anthropological study of the Welsh people. His paper on the geographical distribution of anthropological types in Wales appeared in 1916, 'Regions Humanies' published in Paris was translated into several languages and was joint author with H. J. E. Peake (1867-1946) of the series The Corridors of Time, 1927-1956 (Oxford). He was the secretary of the Geographical Association, editor of its journal, Geography, 1917-1946, and President, 1948. He was also President of the Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1924, elected FRS in 1936 and President of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1945-1947. He married Hilda Mary Bishop of Guernsey, 1910, and had three children. He moved to London after retiring in 1944, and later to Surrey where he died in 1969.

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