Sir Walter James Franklin Williamson (16 April 1867 – 19 November 1954) was a colonial British official who worked as a financial advisor to the Kingdom of Siam. He also took an interest in collecting stamps and studied the birds of the region, collecting specimens of natural history from Thailand. Several taxa have been described on the basis of his specimens and many commemorate him. He was for sometime editor of the Journal of the Natural History Society of Siam along with Malcolm Smith.
Williamson was the son of James Franklin Williamson of the Indian Public Works Department. He studied at the City of London School and Clifton House School, Eastbourne after which he joined the Indian Civil Service serving as an accountant general for India from 1890 to 1900 and then as director of paper currency in Siam from 1900-1904. He then served as a financial advisor to the Siam Government from 1904 to 1925 and subsequently served in Estonia and for the League of Nations. He was knighted in 1927. He married Marion Maria Winifred (21 October 1875 – 30 May 1945), daughter of Lancelot Crozier in 1894.[1][2] He also wrote on the birds of the Bangkok region and published on some taxonomic nomenclature issues.[3]
Williamson collected birds from Thailand, also sending out collectors of eggs and skins to other parts including Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Narathiwat provinces.[4] His wife is commemorated in Mirafra erythrocephala marionae.[5] He is commemorated in Mirafra javanica williamsoni E. C. S. Baker, 1915, Micropternus brachyurus williamsoni Kloss, 1918, Zosterops palpebrosus williamsoni H. C. Robinson & Kloss, 1919, Malacocincla abbotti williamsoni Deignan, 1948, Ploceus manyar williamsoni B. P. Hall, 1957, Muscicapa williamsoni Deignan, 1957 and Tragulus williamsoni Kloss, 1916. His entire collection was bequeathed to the Natural History Museum, London.[6][7][8]
Williamson died in Kensington and is buried in Golders Green.
- ^ Bull, William James (1930). Knightage 1930-1931. A List of the existing recipients of the honour of Knighthood, together with a short account of the origin, objects, and works of The Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor. The Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. p. 310.
- ^ Hell, S. M. (2007). Siam and the League of Nations : modernization, sovereignty, and multilateral diplomacy, 1920-1940 (Thesis). Leiden University. hdl:1887/12395.
- ^ Williamson, W. (2008). "On Anthus hodgsoni". Ibis. 89 (3): 492–494. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1947.tb04366.x.
- ^ Deignan, H.C. (1945). The Birds of Northern Thailand. USNM Bulletin 186. Smithsonian Institution. p. 4.
- ^ Baker, E.C.S. (1915). Mirafra assamica marionae, subsp. nov. Vol. 36. p. 34.
- ^ Wells, David R. (2010). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula Vol. 2. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 731.
- ^ Warr, Frances E. (1996). Manuscripts and Drawings in the Ornithology and Rothschild Libraries of the Natural History Museum at Tring. British Ornithologists' Club. p. 90. ISBN 9780952288619.
- ^ Hall, B.P. (1956). "Note on Sir Walter Williamson, C.M.G. and his bird and egg collections from Thailand". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 76: 87–88.