| Activity | Ornithologist. Tring correspondent. Writes from Konigliches Zoologisches Museum zu Dresden, 1896 and later London. Member of the B O C. After the death of his father in 1882, his inclinations to make a serious study of Ornithology were supported by an aunt and uncle and in 1889 he travelled to Brunswick, armed with an introduction to Professor Wilhelm Blasius, and placed himself under him as a teacher. He spent two years here before proceeding to Dresden as a volunteer assistant to Dr. A. B.Meyer in the Museum of the Capital.
Long aspiring to travel, Lionel finally sailed to Fiji, via New Zealand and Australia, to collect bird specimens for Walter Rothschild. Here he contracted dysentery soon after arriving and a second time whilst still weak from his recovery. He died in Suva hospital in 1901 aged just 36. Shortly before his death, he writes to Ernst Hartert that, “I seem to myself quite a martyr by comparison, as I have sacrificed a tythe of my monetary capital, as well as for the time being, my health. Still I shall never regret having made this trip. The only pity is that my illness didn’t come later on, for my collections are quite insignificant so far”.
Authored 'AveaPolynesize’, 1891 and (jointly with Dr. A. B. Meyer) of ‘The Birds of Celebes’, 1898.
1871 census records that Lionel William Wiglesworth lived in a cottage in Casthlethorpe, Buckinghamshire with his father, James L Wiglesworth, 48 year old widower and Curate of Castethorpe and Hanslope. In 1871, he lived with two brothers, James H, 9 and Charles A, 4. Also a governess and servant. By 1881 all of the boys were students/scholars. |