Douglas Spalding

Douglas Alexander Spalding (1841–1877) was an English biologist. He was one of the founders of ethology (animal behaviour), but it took a long time before this was appreciated.^[1]

He was born in Islington in London in 1841, and began life as a workman. Later, when he lived near Aberdeen, he attended courses without charge.^[2] He studied philosophy and literature, but after a year he returned to London. Spalding trained to be a lawyer, but contracted tuberculosis.

He travelled in Europe in hopes of finding a cure. In Avignon he met John Stuart Mill, and through Mill he met John Russell, Viscount Amberley. Russell was the son of the former British Prime Minister Lord John Russell.^[3] Spalding became tutor to Viscount Amberley's children, including perhaps the very young Bertrand Russell. He also carried on an intermittent affair with Katharine Russell, Lord Amberley's wife. After Lord Amberley's death in 1876, Spalding returned to the continent and died there the following year.

1. ↑ Thorpe W.H. 1979. The origins and rise of ethology: the science of the natural behaviour of animals. Heinemann Praeger, London 1979. Chapter 3: The British contribution to the development of ethology through the nineteenth into the twentieth century. ISBN
2. ↑ One of the professors arranged this.
3. ↑ Russell was by then the 1st Earl Russell.