Arthur Dukinfield DarbishireFRSE was a short-lived but influential British zoologist and geneticist. He was the first person to lecture in Genetics in the UK. He caused a stir in the world of genetics in the early 20th century in the debate over theory, sometimes referred to as The Mendel Wars. From 1901 onwards he conducted a series of experiments on the hybridisation of mice in the laboratory. He was author of the highly influential book Breeding and the Mendelian Discovery.
Life
He was born in Kensington in London on 14 February 1879, the son of Florence Eckersley and Dr Samuel Dukinfield Darbishire. Soon after he was born, the family moved to Oxford, when his father was appointed Physician at the Radcliffe Infirmary. In 1881 the family are listed as living at 15 New Inn Hall Street with four servants. In 1888 his father took early retiral on health grounds and the family moved to Plas Mawr in Wales. However, the family returned to Oxford following his father’s premature death in 1892. Having suffered from rheumatic fever as a child he was considered unsuitable for boarding school and was taught locally at Magdalen College School before attending the University of Oxford. He graduated with an MA in Natural Sciences and Zoology from Balliol College, Oxford in 1902. He stayed on to act as Demonstrator in Zoology at the College. In 1911 he became Lecturer in Genetics at the University of Edinburgh and in July 1912 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were James Cossar Ewart, James Hartley Ashworth, Sir James Anderson Scott Watson and Ramsay Heatley Traquair. While in Edinburgh he was greatly influenced by Henri Louis Bergson who was visiting to give the Gifford Lectures in the spring of 1914. His career was cut short by the First World War. In 1914 he was lecturing in Genetics at the School of Agriculture in Columbia, Missouri. He was unable to accept either of the two offers of professorships while in the United States, and instead returned to Britain at the outbreak of war. At first he was declared unfit for active service due to his physical condition, and was given a posting to munitions production. Not enjoying his alternative posting, he persevered and was eventually accepted as a Private into the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in July 1915. He became seriously ill during training at Gailes Training Camp near London. He was taken ill with cerebral meningitis on Christmas Day 1915 and died on the morning of 26 December. He was gazetteered as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery three days after his death. He is buried in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, Britain's largest cemetery. However he is listed on the Brookwood United Kingdom Memorial listing those with no known grave, as a Second Lieutenant RGA on panel 3 of the memorial, despite never living to hold this position. His name also appears on the Roll of Honour in Sunningwell Village Hall. He is also named on the war memorials for Balliol College, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Manchester. The post of Director of the new Animal Breeding Research Station in Edinburgh was created with Darbishire in mind, and was taken up by a former pupil of his, Francis Albert Eley Crew in 1921.
