John Robertson Henderson

Life

Henderson was born on 21 May 1863 in Melrose the son of Inland Revenue official Edward Henderson (1825–1894) and Jessie Louttit Henderson (née Robertson) (1834–1894). He was educated at both Dulwich College and Dollar Academy. He then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Henderson was awarded the Dobbie-Smith Gold Medal in Botany in 1883 and graduated MB ChB in 1884. He was influenced by Sir Wyville Thomson and took an interest in marine zoology. He worked at the Firths of Forth and Clyde and examined the collections obtained from the Challenger expedition while working at the Scottish Marine Station, Granton.

He moved to India in 1885-6 to become a professor of zoology at the Madras Christian College where he worked until 1911. Additional duties included being in charge of the Government Museum , the principal librarian at the Connemara Public Library and as Keeper of the Madras Aquarium. In 1896 he worked on the Paguridae (hermit crabs) obtained by the Royal Indian Marine Survey ship Investigator. He retired in 1911 and returned to Scotland in 1919. In 1918 he was created a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE). In 1923 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Arthur Crichton Mitchell, James Hartley Ashworth, D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson and James Ritchie.

Henderson married Alice Roberta Sinclair (1868–1915) in Madras in 1888. They had a son and a daughter. After her death, he married Elizabeth (“Lizzie”) Beatrice Adie (1882–1936) at Delting in 1921. They had no children. He died in Edinburgh on 26 October 1925 at a nursing home from a malignant liver tumour. He is buried with his wife in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh.

The genus Hendersonida Cabezas & Macpherson, 2014 and several species are named after him including:

• Anapagurus hendersoni Barnard, 1947
• Gastroptychus hendersoni (Alcock & Anderson, 1899)
• Macrobrachium hendersoni (de Man, 1906) = Bithynsi hendersoni Rathbun, 1910, Palaemon hendersoni Kemp, 1913
• Raninioides hendersoni Chopra, 1933
• Bakousa hendersoniana (de Man, 1899)
• Hyastenus hendersoni (Laurie, 1906)
• Halimede hendersoni Nobili, 1905
• Palapedia hendersoni (Rathbun, 1902)
• Parapinnixa hendersoni Rathbun, 1918