Ramsay Traquair

Ramsay Heatley Traquair was born on 30 July 1840 in the manse at Rhynd, Perthshire, Scotland the youngest of the eight children of Elizabeth Mary Bayley (1800-1843) and the Rev James Traquair. The family moved to 10 Duncan Street in south Edinburgh when his father retired, soon after Traquair's birth. Traquair attended preparatory school, followed by further schooling at the Edinburgh Institution. on flatfish, on the "Asymmetry of the Pleuronectidae". The anatomists he studied and worked with at the University included John Goodsir and William Turner. ==Career==

Traquair initially stayed on at the University of Edinburgh, working as an anatomy demonstrator from 1863 to 1866. He then took up the post of Professor of Natural History at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester. They had three children: Ramsay (1874); Henry (Harry) Moss (1875); and Hilda (1879).|alt=Black and white drawing of a fish with wide head and separated eyes, dorsal fin and shark-like tail Traquair would spend the next 33 years working in Edinburgh in charge of the museum's natural history collections, building up a large collection of fossil fish. The deposits that he studied included the Old Red Sandstone and the Carboniferous rocks of Scotland. He was also a visiting lecturer at the Natural History Museum in London (then part of the British Museum), twice being appointed 'Swiney Lecturer on Geology at the British Museum (Natural History)' for two five-year periods, from 1883 to 1887 and then again from 1896 to 1900. He was elected to the Geological Society of London in 1874. ==Family==

Traquair was married to the artist Phoebe Anna Traquair (née Moss) and they had two sons and a daughter, Ramsay, Henry (Harry) Moss, and Hilda. Ramsay became an architect and Harry an ophthalmic surgeon in Edinburgh. ==Awards and honours==

Traquair received the 1881 award from the Wollaston Fund, and in 1901 was awarded the Lyell Medal, both from the Geological Society of London. Other awards included the triennial Neill Prize (1874–77) and the biennial Makdougall-Brisbane Prize (1898–1900), both from the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The Royal Medal citation was "On the ground of his discoveries relating to fossil fishes". ==Later years==

Traquair retired in 1906 to "The Bush" in the Edinburgh suburb of Colinton. He died on 22 November 1912, at the age of 72, survived by his wife and three children. He is buried in the graveyard at Colinton Parish Church, with his grave marked by a headstone designed by his wife and carved by Pilkington Jackson. Obituaries and memorial notices and articles were published in the Glasgow Herald, as well as a range of scientific journals. His wife was later buried with him, as were the ashes of his son Harry. ==References==