#15215, John Henry GURNEY

John Henry developed his interest in Natural History as a child. 

He published a number of articles in The Zoologist on the birds of Norfolk, for instance 'An Account of the Birds of Norfolk', with W.R. Fisher (1846-1848).  Gurney also commenced a collection of birds of prey. In 1864 he published Part I. of his Descriptive Catalogue of this collection, and in 1872 he edited The Birds of Damara Land (Damaraland, South-West Africa) from the notes of his friend Charles John Anderson.

Between 1875 and 1882 he produced a series of notes in The Ibis on the first volume of the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, and in 1884 brought out a List of Diurnal Birds of Prey, with References and Annotations. The archives of Cambridge University Museum of Zoology contains five volumes of correspondence between Alfred Newton and Gurney, who was a founding member of the Norfolk Naturalists Trust

For the last twenty years of his life he resided at the family's home at Northrepps, near Cromer.  His son,John Henry Gurney Jr was also an ornithologist, and his great-great-grandson, Henry Richard Gurney of Heggatt Hall has continued the family tradition.