Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell (20 June 1877 - 8 November 1918), the biologist, physician and author, was the only son of the architect Herbert Spurrell and Harriet Rebecca Blaxland. He was a nephew of the archaeologist Flaxman Charles John Spurrell

Flaxman Charles John Spurrell

Flaxman Charles John Spurrell , the archaeologist, geologist and photographer, was born in Mile End, Stepney, London, the eldest son of Dr. Flaxman Spurrell, M.D., F.R.C.S., and Ann Spurrell...

 and a member of the Spurrell

Spurrell

Spurrell is a surname found in a number of parts of England and Wales, as well as other parts of the world.- The Spurrells of Norfolk, England :...

 family of Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

.

A student of Gustav Mann

Gustav Mann

Gustav Mann was a German botanist who led expeditions in West Africa and was also a gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.Born in Hanover in 1836, he was chosen by William Jackson Hooker, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to take part in William Balfour Baikie's expedition to West...

, Spurrell went on to discover and classify fish, reptiles and frogs from the Gold Coast

Gold Coast (British colony)

The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa that became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957.-Overview:The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial...

 and South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, and was a Fellow of the Zoological Society. Among the species named after him are Spurrell's Free-tailed Bat

Spurrell's Free-tailed Bat

The Spurrell's Free-tailed Bat is a species of bat in the family Molossidae named after Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell. It is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry...

 and Spurrell's Woolly Bat

Spurrell's Woolly Bat

Spurrell's Woolly Bat is a species of vesper bat in the Vespertilionidae family named after Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell....

.

During the First World War he served as a Captain

Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)

Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...

 in the Royal Army Medical Corps

Royal Army Medical Corps

The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...

; he died of pneumonia at Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, on 8 November 1918.

He was also the author of a number of books, both scientific and fictional:

• The Commonwealth of Cells: Some popular essays on human physiology, 1901, Bailliere, Tindall & Cox
• Out of the Past, 1903, Greening
• At Sunrise: A story of the Beltane, 1904, Greening
• Patriotism: A biological study, 1911, George Bell & Sons
• Modern Man and his Forerunners: A short study of the human species living and extinct, 1917, George Bell & Sons