Percy Roycroft Lowe was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 surgeon

Surgery

Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...

 and ornithologist.

Lowe was born at Stamford, Lincolnshire

Stamford, Lincolnshire

Stamford is a town and civil parish within the South Kesteven district of the county of Lincolnshire, England. It is approximately to the north of London, on the east side of the A1 road to York and Edinburgh and on the River Welland...

 and studied medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 at Jesus College, Cambridge

Jesus College, Cambridge

Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...

. He served as a civil surgeon in the Second Boer War

Second Boer War

The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

, and it was whilst in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 that he became interested in ornithology. On his return he became private physician to Sir Frederic Johnstone, and during World War One was medical officer on an ambulance ship in the Mediterranean.

Lowe worked with Dorothea Bate

Dorothea Bate

Dorothea Minola Alice Bate FGS , also known as Dorothy Bate, was a British palaeontologist, a pioneer of archaeozoology...

 on fossil ostrich

Ostrich

The Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...

es in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

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In November 1919 he succeeded William Robert Ogilvie-Grant

William Robert Ogilvie-Grant

William Robert Ogilvie-Grant was a Scottish ornithologist.-Career:Ogilvie-Grant was educated at Cargilfield and Fettes College, Edinburgh, where he studied zoology and anatomy. In 1882 he became an Assistant at the Natural History Museum. He studied ichthyology under Albert C. L. G...

 as Curator of Birds at the Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...

, retiring on his sixty-fifth birthday in 1935. He was succeeded by Norman Boyd Kinnear

Norman Boyd Kinnear

Sir Norman Boyd Kinnear was a Scottish zoologist and ornithologist.Kinnear was the son of the wealthy Edinburgh architect Charles George Hood Kinnear and came from the same banking family as Sir William Jardine.While studying at Trinity College, Glenalmond, he worked as a voluntary assistant at...

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He was editor of the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club

Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club

The Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club is an ornithological journal published by the British Ornithologists' Club . It is cited as Bull. B. O. C.Many descriptions of birds new to science have been published in the bulletin....

 from 1920 to 1925 and president of the British Ornithologists' Union

British Ornithologists' Union

The British Ornithologists' Union aims to encourage the study of birds in Britain, Europe and elsewhere, in order to understand their biology and to aid their conservation....

 from 1938 to 1943. His 1936 publication The finches of the Galapagos in relation to Darwin's conception of species introduced the term Darwin's finches

Darwin's finches

Darwin's finches are a group of 14 or 15 species of passerine birds. It is still not clear which bird family they belong to, but they are not related to the true finches. They were first collected by Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands during the second voyage of the Beagle...

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In 1939 he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union

Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union Fellows

The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union may elect somebody to the position of Fellow, the highest grade of membership, for service to the RAOU and to ornithology. Fellows of the RAOU are entitled to use the letters FRAOU after their name. There is a limit to the number of Fellows that may...

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