Herbert Musgrave Phipson

Herbert Musgrave Phipson (c. 1850 – 7 August 1936), was a British wine merchant and naturalist who lived in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, from 1878 to 1905. As the honorary secretary of the Bombay Natural History Society, editor of its Journal, and manager of the Society's business and outreach activities, he played an important role in establishing the journal's reputation as the foremost natural history journal in Asia; he also influenced public science policy in the Bombay Presidency. His efforts saw fruition in the establishment of the Natural Sciences section of the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India. Phipson, who was married to the pioneering physician Edith Pechey-Phipson, co-founded, with his wife, the Pechey Phipson Sanitarium for Women and Children in Nasik, India. Biography Phipson was born in London in about 1850 and educated at Clifton College. He went out to India in 1878 as a partner in the firm of J. A. Forbes & Co., Bombay. Five years later, he established his own company, Phipson & Co. Wine Merchants. He joined the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in 1884 and in 1886 became both the Society's honorary secretary and the editor of its journal. He married Edith Pechey, head physician at the Cama Hospital for Women and Children, Bombay in 1889. In 1906, he and his wife returned to England, on account of her ill-health, to which, however, she succumbed two years later. Bombay Natural History Society Phipson was visiting England when the Bombay Natural History Society was founded on 15 September 1883. Upon his return to Bombay, he immediately joined BNHS and in January 1884 offered office space belonging to his business as a permanent home for the Society. Two years later, when the need was felt for BNHS to expand, he again offered the Society part of the larger premises he had acquired for his business at 6 Apollo Street, Bombay. This was to be BNHS's home for the next fifty years. From March 1886, when he succeeded E. H. Aitken as honorary secretary, to April 1906 when he returned to England, Phipson was the driving force behind the Society. He served as the editor of the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society for twenty years – as the sole editor for fifteen years and then joint editor with W. S. Millard who succeeded him as honorary secretary. His main area of scholarly interest was snakes and, in spite of being tied down by his business and BNHS work, he found time to write the occasional note.