John Whitehead (30 June 1860 – 2 June 1899) was an English explorer, naturalist and professional collector of natural history specimens in Southeast Asia. He is the first documented person to reach the summit of Mount Kinabalu: this was in 1888, after annual attempts from 1885.[1]
Whitehead was born in Colney Hatch Lane, Muswell Hill, Middlesex to Jeffery Whitehead, a stockbroker, and his wife Jane Ashton Tinker. After education at Elstree, Hertfordshire and the Edinburgh Institution he faced health problems and was sent to recuperate to Engadine in Switzerland in 1881 and then to warm Corsica in 1882 where he discovered a bird new to science, the Corsican nuthatch.[2]
Whitehead intended to return to the Philippines in 1899, but was he was forced to alter his plans because of the Spanish–American War. He instead travelled to the island of Hainan, where he died of fever at port of Hoihow (Haikou).[15]
^Jenkins, D.V. (1996). The first Hundred Years, A short account of the expeditions to Mt Kinabalu 1851-1950 [Chapter 4 of Kinabalu Summit of Borneo, Sabah Society/Sabah Parks, Ed.2, 1996].
^Sharfe, R. Bowdler (1887). "Notes on a Collection of Birds made by Mr. John Whitehead on the Mountain of Kina Balu, in Northern Borneo, with Descriptions of new Species". Ibis. 29 (4): 435–454. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1887.tb06626.x.