Samuel Tickell

Colonel Samuel Richard Tickell (August 19, 1811 - April 20, 1875) was an British army officer, artist and ornithologist in India and Burma.

Tickell was born at Cuttack in India. He was educated in England, returning at the age of nineteen to join the Bengal Native Infantry. He served in Bengal until 1840, when he was made commander of Brian Hodgson's military escort to Katmandu. He returned to Bengal in 1843, and after his promotion to Captain in 1847 he was moved to lower Burma.

During his time in India Tickell made important contributions to the country's ornithology and mammalogy, with field observations and the collections of specimens. He contributed to volume 17 of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Volume 18 included a report by Tickell from Burma.

Tickell retired in 1865 and settled in the Channel Islands. In 1870 his eyes suffered an inflammatory attack which made him blind. He died in Cheltenham.

Tickell had been working on a book entitled Illustrations of Indian Ornithology, but his deteriorating eyesight forced him to abandon it. Before his death he donated the unfinished work to the Zoological Society of London.

A number of birds were named after Tickell, including Tickell's Thrush (Turdus unicolor), Tickell's Flowerpecker (Dicaeum erythrorhynchos), Tickell's Blue Flycatcher (Cyornis tickelliae) and Tickell's Leaf-warbler (Phylloscopus affinis).

Reference

• Biographies for Birdwatchers, Mearns and Mearns ISBN 0124874223