Arthur Stark
| Arthur Stark | |
|---|---|
Arthur C. Stark, c. 1885
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| Born |
Arthur Cowell Stark 27 November 1846 Torquay |
| Died | 18 November 1899 (aged 53) Ladysmith |
| Resting place | Ladysmith |
| Education | Blundell's School |
| Alma mater | Edinburgh University |
| Spouse(s) | Rosa Catherine Cox |
Arthur Cowell Stark (27 November 1846 – 18 November 1899) was a medical doctor and naturalist. He emigrated from Torquay, England to Cape Town, South Africa in 1892. He lived in (the British colonies of) South Africa during the last 7 years of his life and died during the Siege of Ladysmith at the age of 53. He is best known for initiating an ornithological work, The Birds of South Africa.
Arthur Stark was born in Torquay as the eldest of three sons of John and Anne Stark. John was a successful ironmonger, and at times a furniture manufacturer. Arthur Stark was educated at Blundell's School and Clifton College. John Stark died in 1863 when Arthur was 16, from which time he took responsibility for the family's business. He worked as ironmonger up to the age of 26, when he married his distant cousin Rosa Cox. For a time they lived in Weston-super-Mare, before Arthur started his medical studies at Edinburgh University at age 30.
After the death of Rosa in 1892, he settled in Cape Town, while his daughters remained in England. Besides practicing as medical doctor he travelled regularly to collect animal specimens for the South African Museum and made sketches and extensive notes of his observations.
His travels up to 1898 included forays into the inland regions of the Cape, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal, while he consulted the major specimen collections of the time, at the South African Museum, Albany Museum in Grahamstown and the Durban Museum. Besides his personal notes, he accumulated bird eggs, bird nests and butterfly specimens, some of which were added to his personal collection.
He moved from Cape Town to Durban shortly before the outbreak of the Boer War and travelled to England in 1899 to oversee the printing of the first volume of his ornithological work, The Birds of South Africa. The completed series was meant to form part of a wider project under the editorship of William Sclater, director of the South African Museum, describing the fauna of southern Africa. Dr Stark returned to the Colony of Natal in September, 1899, where he volunteered as medical officer for the British forces when the Boer War broke out.
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