Person

Yonge, Charles Maurice (Maurice) (1899 - 1986)

FRS FRSE Kt

Born
9 December 1899
Wakefield, Yorkshire, England
Died
17 March 1986
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Occupation
Malacologist, Marine scientist and Marine zoologist

Summary

Maurice Yonge was a marine zoologist renowned for his research on the adaptive radiation and evolution of bivalve molluscs. Other research, for which he was equally noted, was in invertebrate physiology, coral physiology, and gastropod and bivalve filter-feeding. His first visit to Australia was a leader of the Great Barrier Reef Expedition 1928 - 1929, which was centred on the Low Isles. Most members of the Expedition were British: they were joined for varying periods by leading Australian scientists such as Gilbert Whitley and Tom Iredale. The success of this Expedition established Yonge's reputation as a leading marine zoologist. After his return to Britain, he was for 20 years Regius Professor of Zoology at the University of Glasgow. Yonge made a number of later visits to Australia in support of other Reef expeditions. In 1975 he opened the opened the Australian Museum's Lizard Island Research Station. Three years later he returned to the Low Isles, noting the degradation that had occurred over the previous 50 years. Yonge's personal library of several 1000 items relating to marine subjects (particularly malacology) was donated to Australian Institute of Marine Science 1982: it was transferred in 2016 to the James Cook University library. The Yonge Reef was named in his honour.

Details

Chronology

1922
Education - BSc, University of Edinburgh
1922 - 1924
Career position - Baxter Natural Science Scholar, University of Edinburgh
1924
Education - PhD, University of Edinburgh
1924 - 1925
Career position - Carnegie Research Scholar
1925 - 1927
Career position - Temporary Assistant Naturalist, Marine Biological Association, Plymouth, United Kingdom
1927
Education - DSc, University of Edinburgh
1927 - 1929
Career position - Balfour Student, University of Cambridge
1928 - 1929
Career position - Leader, Great Barrier Reef Expedition
1930 - 1932
Career position - Physiologist, Marine Biological Association, Plymouth, United Kingdom
1933 - 1934
Career position - Professor of Zoology, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
1944 - 1964
Career position - Regius Professor of Zoology, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
1945 - 1986
Award - Fellow, Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE)
1946 - 1986
Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)
1953 - 1956
Career position - Vice-President, Royal Society of Edinburgh
1954
Award - Companion of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
1957
Award - Makdougall-Brisbane Prize, Royal Society of Edinburgh
1961
Career position - President, Section D, British Association for the Advancement of Science
1965 - 1970
Career position - Research Fellow in Zoology, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
1967
Life event - Visited Australia to review Great Barrier Reef with Thomas Goreau
1967
Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt)
1968
Award - Darwin Medal, Royal Society of London
1969 - 1970
Career position - Vice-President, Royal Society of Edinburgh
1970 - 1973
Career position - President, Royal Society of Edinburgh
1971
Award - Honorary doctorate, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
1973
Life event - Visited Australia in support of the Royal Society and University of Queensland expedition to the Reef
1975
Life event - Opened the Australian Museum's Lizard Island Research Station
1978
Life event - Revisited the Low Isles Reef

Related Events

Published resources

Books

  • Yonge, C. M., Origins, organization and scope of the Expedition (London: British Museum (Natural History), 1930), 11 pp. Details
  • Yonge, C. M., A year on the Great Barrier Reef: the story of corals and of the greatest of their creations (London: Putnam, 1930), 246 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Allen, J. A., 'Sir Maurice Yonge C.B.E., D.Sc., F.R.S., P.P.R.S.E. 1899 - 1986' in The Bivalvia: proceedings of a memorial symposium in honour of Sir Maurice Yonge, Edinburgh, 1986, Morton, B., ed. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1990), pp. 5-8. Details

Journal Articles

  • Heppell, D., 'C. M. Yonge: a chronological list of publications', Asian marine biology, 3 (1986), 9-31. Details
  • Morton, B., 'Obituary : Sir Charles Maurice Yonge: 9 December 1899 - 17 March 1986', Asian marine biology, 3 (1986), 1-7. Details
  • Morton, B., 'Charles Maurice Yonge 9 December 1899 - 17 March 1986: elected F.R.S. 1946', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 38 (1992), 379-412. Details
  • Morton, Brian, 'Charles Maurice Yonge (1899 - 1986)', Archives of natural history, 25 (3) (1998), 431-48. Details
  • Spencer, Tom; Brown, Barbara E.; Hamylton, Sarah M.; and McLean, Roger F., '"A close and friendly alliance": biology, geology and the Great Barrier Reef Expedition of 1928 - 1929', Oceanography and marine biology: an annual review, 59 (2021), 89-138. Details
  • Yonge, C. M., 'The marine biological laboratory at Low Isles, N. Queensland', ICES journal of marine science, 6 (3) (1931), 459-62. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/6.3.459. Details

Resources

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

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