Stackhouse, Thomas (? -1886)

Commander in the Royal Navy.

With William Macleay he founded the Linnean Society of N .S. W. Macleay, who always depreciated his own efforts said, "The Society was formed, chiefly through the exertions of Captain Stackhouse". Professor W. J. Stephens, President of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, said of him-

"He died at Rocky Mouth, Clarence River, where he had been residing for eight months under the kind care of Dr. Hood, and he must be regarded as the originator of this Society, of which he;was the first Honorary Secretary. His special pursuit was botany, though all branches of science, even of the most speculative, interested him to a very unusual degree. After his removal from Sydney he resided for some years at Yamba, in the Clarence Rivet district, where he employed himself with great success in the investigation and discovery of rare or new species; and where unfortunately, he contracted by exposure to severe weather the illness to which he ultimately succumbed."

Source: Maiden, J.H. (1908) Records of Australian botanists- (a) General, (b) New South Wales. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales for 1908. 42:60-132