Everard im Thurn

Sir Everard Ferdinand im Thurn KCMG, KBE, CB
Acting Governor of British Ceylon
In office 19 November 1903 – 3 December 1903
Monarch	Edward VII
Preceded by	Joseph West Ridgeway
Succeeded by	Henry Arthur Blake
7th High Commissioner for the Western Pacific
In office 11 October 1904 – 21 February 1911
Monarch	Edward VII, George V
Preceded by	Sir Henry Jackson
Succeeded by	Sir Francis May
8th Governor of Fiji
In office 11 October 1904 – 21 February 1911
Preceded by	Sir Henry Jackson
Succeeded by	Sir Francis May
Personal details
Born	1852
Died
Spouse(s)	Hannah C. Lorimer

Sir Everard Ferdinand im Thurn, KCMG, KBE, CB (1852 – October 9, 1932) was an author, explorer, botanist, photographer and British colonial administrator. He was Governor of Fiji 1904–1910.

Im Thurn was educated at Marlborough College, Oxford University, Edinburgh University, and Sydney University. His first book, dedicated to his headmaster, was a study of The Birds of Marlborough (1870). After his education, im Thurn travelled to British Guiana—called Guyana since its independence from Great Britain—to become (at the age of 25) the Curator of the British Guiana Museum from 1877. He remained in this post until 1882, and later became a Stipendiary Magistrate in Pomeroon.

In December 1884 he led the first successful expedition to the summit of Mount Roraima, in Venezuela's Gran Sabana region, along with Harry Perkins, an Assistant Crown Surveyor who was also living in British Guiana. He was a keen photographer and author of several works related to his expedition to Roraima, which were published in scientific journals, including: "The Botany of Roraima Expedition of 1884: being notes on the plants observed; with a list of the species collected, and determinations of those that are new" (Linnean Society, 1887), and Among the Indians of Guiana: being sketches, chiefly anthropologic from the interior of British Guiana, etc.", which includes detailed observations of the Pemon Indians of Venezuela.

Im Thurn went on to become a government agent in British Guiana from 1891 to 1899, and was employed on the Venezuelan boundary commission 1897–99, for which he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1900. He spent a couple of years back in the United Kingdom, holding several positions from 1899 to 1901, including 1st Class Clerk and later Principal Clerk in the Colonial Office. In July 1901 he moved to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he was appointed Colonial Secretary and Lieutenant-Governor. He ended his colonial career in Fiji where he was governor from 1904 to 1910, during which he was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1905.

He was a well-respected figure in the scientific circles of his time, serving as the President of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1919–1920 and being made an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.

In 1895 he married Hannah C. Lorimer, daughter of Professor James Lorimer, of the University of Edinburgh.

The standard author abbreviation Thurn is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

References

• This article contains content from the defunct wiki, Hierarchypedia, used here under the GNU Free Documentation License.
• Im Thurn, E.F. (1885). The Ascent of Mount Roraima. Proceedings of the Royal Geographic Society VII: 497–521.

External links

• Account of Im Thurn's 1884 ascent of Roraima

Government offices
Preceded by Joseph West Ridgeway	Acting Governor of Ceylon 1903	Succeeded by Henry Arthur Blake
Preceded by Sir Henry Moore Jackson	High Commissioner for the Western Pacific 1904–1911	Succeeded by Sir Francis Henry May
	Governor of Fiji 1904–1911