Alfred Hart Everett

Alfred Hart Everett (11 October 1848 – 18 June 1898) was a British civil servant and administrator in Borneo as well as being a naturalist and natural history collector.

Career

Everett was born on Norfolk Island to British parents: George, the doctor at the penal colony, from Wiltshire, and Anna-Maria, from Jersey. They left in 1851 to return to England via Tasmania, so he was educated in England. In 1869 he went to Sarawak in north-western Borneo in order to collect natural history specimens. After two years there he entered the service of the Kingdom of Sarawak, as a Resident in the Baram district, under the White Rajahs. In 1878 and 1879 he was engaged by the Royal Society and British Association to explore 'the Caves of Borneo' in search of the remains of ancient man. The explorations were made around Bau and Niah but were unsuccessful in their primary aim (although the orangutan jaw which later formed part of Piltdown Man may well have been one result). In 1885 he was appointed the Rajah’s Consul to the Court of the Sultan of Brunei. He later served in North Borneo in the administration of the British North Borneo Company.

In 1891, Everett became a member of the British Ornithologists' Union. He never married. He died in London.

Zoological collecting

Everett collected for the Marquess of Tweedale and Walter Rothschild, as well as others. He is best known for the collections he made of birds and mammals in Borneo and the Philippines. He is commemorated in the names of several animals, including:

Birds

• Bornean spiderhunter (Arachnothera everetti)
• Brown-backed flowerpecker (Dicaeum everetti)
• Chestnut-crested yuhina (Staphida everetti)
• Everett's thrush (Zoothera everetti)
• Everett's white-eye (Zosterops everetti)
• Russet-capped tesia (Tesia everetti)
• Sumba buttonquail (Turnix everetti)
• Sumba hornbill (Rhyticeros everetti)
• White-tipped monarch (Monarcha everetti)
• Yellowish bulbul (Ixos everetti)

Mammals

• Bornean ferret-badger (Melogale everetti)
• Bornean mountain ground squirrel (Dremomys everetti)
• Mindanao treeshrew (Urogale everetti)
• Philippine forest rat (Rattus everetti)

Snakes

• Everett's reedsnake (Calamaria everetti)
• Jewelled kukri snake (Oligodon everetti)
• Sabah striped coralsnake (Calliophis intestinalis everetti)

Frogs

• Everett's treefrog (Litoria everetti)

Fish

• Clown barb (Puntius everetti)

References

Sources

• Anon (1898). "Death of Mr Alfred Hart Everett". The Sarawak Gazette. 29: 136–137.
• M.J. van Steenis Kruseman. "Flora Malesiana: Collectors: Alfred Hart Everett". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2009). The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-9304-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |last-author-amp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
• Anon (12 January 1885). "SARAWAK News". The Straits Times: 3.
• "Genealogical notes on the Benests of St Heliers, their ancestors & descendants". Bernau, Charles A. (Compiler). Internet Archive. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
• "Everett, Alfred Hart". Biodiversity and Systematic Biology – Collections Sources. National Museum Wales. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
• "British Ornithologists' Union, 1896". The Ibis. II: viii. 1896.
• A.Hart Everett (1878). "Distribution of minerals in Sarawak". J.Straits Branch Royal Asiatic Society. 1, Singapore, pp13-30.
• A.Hart Everett (1880). "Report on the Exploration of the Caves of Borneo". Proceedings of the Royal Society. 30, London, pp310-324.
• L.Harrison Matthews (1981). "The Missing Links (10) Will we ever know the truth?". New Scientist. 91 (1260 London, p26).