William Tompson Bednall
1838 to 1915 

The Bednall Archive

William Tompson Bednall was born in Leicester, UK, on 17 August 1838  and late baptized in the parish church of St. Marys, Leicester. He died in Adelaide, South Australia on 25 July 1915 at the age of 76.  The following obituary is based on that by C. Hedley which appeared in Adelaide 1916.

Obituary Notice.
It is with much regret we have to record the death of William Tompson Bednall. The son of William and  Etheldreda (nee Henshaw Blore) Bednall of Leicester and was educated at the Philological School, London. His first employment was at the Jermyn Street Museum of Practical Geology, then under the direction of Sir H. B. De La Beche.

In 1853 he emigrated to Australia with his mother (then a widow) and entered the service of the Register, a prominent newspaper of Adelaide, South Australia. In 1874 he edited a paper at Port Darwin in the Northern Territory. But after two years in the Tropics he returned to the Register, upon which he was engaged till his retirement in 1908. For several years his health was delicate, and he died on July 25, 1915, in his 77th year, leaving a family of one married daughter and three Sons.

All his life he was an enthusiastic conchologist. He is associated with two splendid species which lie discovered in the Northern Territory, Voluta bednalli and Murex bednalli. Besides these two, of which he was especially proud, the specific bednalli was adopted for Australian members of the following genera: Acanthochites, Chiton, Drillia, Epidromis, Helix, Pecten. Trigonia. and Unio. For many years he was honorary curator in Conchology to his State Museum.

He was one of the founders of tine Royal Society of South Australia, to the publications of which he contributed six articles on Australian Mollusca. His best work was an article on the Polyplacophora of South Australia in the 'Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London' (vol. ii, 1897, pp. 139-39. pl. xii and figs.). His last conchological paper, also on Polyplacophora, written in association with E. H. V. Matthews, appeared in the same journal (vol. vii, 1906, pp. 91-2, pl. ix).  
C. HEDLEY.
Reference P.M.S.L 12(2/3):11. 

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