Thomas Coward

English ornithologist, amateur astronomer, journalist and writer

Thomas Alfred Coward

MSc FZS FRES MBOU

Born| (1867-01-08)8 January 1867
Bowdon Cheshire
Died| 29 January 1933(1933-01-29) (aged 66)
Lower Bowdon, Cheshire
Occupation|

* Company manager
* Museum keeper

Alma mater| Owens College (now Manchester University)
Period| Late C19-
Subject|

* Natural history
* Ornithology

Notable works| The Birds of the British Isles and Their Eggs

Cover of The Migration of Birds. Aside from the coat-of-arms and lettering, the design is that used by the earliest known Cambridge printer, John Siberch, in 1521.

Thomas Alfred Coward FZS FRES MBOU (8 January 1867 – 29 January 1933), was an English ornithologist and an amateur astronomer. He wrote extensively on natural history, local history and Cheshire.

## Life[edit]

He was born at 8 Higher Downs, Bowdon, Cheshire (now Greater Manchester) on 8 January 1867, the fourth and last child of Thomas and Sarah Coward. His father was a Congregational minister and in business as a partner in the firm of Melland and Coward, textile bleachers.[1] Coward's siblings were Charles, Alice and Annie.

After an education at Brooklands School, Sale and at Owens College (now Manchester University), Coward worked in the family business for 19 years, before it was taken over by the Bleachers' Association. His share of the proceeds from the sale of Melland and Coward was sufficient to allow him to retire from business and concentrate on his love of wildlife and the study of birds, which had developed as a child.[1][2] He began writing articles on natural history for newspapers including The Liverpool Daily Post, The Chester Cournant and The Manchester Guardian for which he wrote the "Country Diary" column until his death. General interest magazines for which he wrote included The Field and Country Life and in specialist journals such as The Zoologist, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London and British Birds.[1]

His first book was The Birds of Cheshire, published in 1900, when he was living in Hale. His three-volume The Birds of the British Isles and their eggs (1920–25) was illustrated by Archibald Thorburn and was "acknowledged as being the book that did more to popularise the study of birds than any other publication produced during the first part of the twentieth century".[3] It was revised by Arnold Boyd for a new edition in 1950.

He co-wrote articles and books on ornithology with Charles Oldham, a former schoolmate.[4]

He married his cousin Mary Milne in 1904. There is a Blue Plaque at his former home, Brentwood Villa, 6 Grange Road, Bowdon,[5] to which he moved in 1911.

On his death, the 14-acre (57,000 m2) Cotterill Clough Nature Reserve was bought, by public subscription, in his honour.[6]

His field notes are archived in the Department of Zoology at Oxford.

### Jizz[edit]

Coward is credited with the first use in print of the term "Jizz", in his "Country Diary" column of 6 December 1921 - the piece was subsequently included in his 1922 book "Bird Haunts and Nature Memories".[7] He attributed it to "a west-coast Irishman".[7]

## Positions[edit]

* Acting Keeper of the Manchester Museum (During World War I)
* Chairman and President of the Altrincham and District Natural History and Literary Society
* President of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society from 1921 to 1923

## Bibliography[edit]

Press advertisement for The Birds of the British Isles and their Eggs, published in The Times, London, 6 February 1920

Brambling by Archibald Thorburn, one of the illustrations from The Birds of the British Isles and their Eggs

Coward wrote a number of books on local history, natural history and birds:[8]

* The Birds of Cheshire, 1900, written jointly with Charles Oldham.
* Picturesque Cheshire
* The Vertebrate Fauna of Cheshire and Liverpool Bay, 1910, written jointly with Charles Oldham and James Johnstone.
* Cheshire. Cambridge County Geographies.
* The Migration of Birds, Cambridge University Press, 1912
* The Birds of the British Isles and their Eggs, Frederick Warne & Co, 1919 in two volumes, expanded to three in 1926
* Bird Haunts and Nature Memories, Frederick Warne & Co, 1922
* Birds and their Young
* Life of the Wayside and Woodland
* Birds at Home and Abroad
* Life of Birds
* Bird and Other Nature Problems, Frederick Warne & Co, 1931
* Cheshire – Traditions and History
* The Mammalian Fauna of Cheshire

### Contributions[edit]

* The Practical Handbook of British Birds, Witherby & Co, 1920
* White, Walter Walmesley (1931). Bird life in Devon. London: J. Cape. pp. 256 p, [12] leaves of plates : ill (music), 20 cm. (Foreword)

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c Cardwell, Donald (2004). "Coward, Thomas Alfred (1867–1933)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36241. Retrieved 11 June 2011. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. ^ "Mr T. A. Coward". The Times. No. 46356\. 31 January 1933. p. 15. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
3. ^ Usher, Tony. "T.A.Coward". Knutsford Ornithological Society. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
4. ^ W. E. G. (July 1942). "Obituary: Charles Oldham". Ibis. 84 (3): 440–443. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1942.tb05717.x.
5. ^ "Blue plaque № 8447 in Bowdon". Open Plaques. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
6. ^ Hodkinson, Mr J. F. (March 1934). "The T. A. Coward Memorial Nature Reserves". North Western Naturalist. IX (1): 3.
7. ^ a b Greenwood, Jeremy J.D.; Greenwood, Julian G. (May 2018). "The Origin of the Birdwatching Term "Jizz"". British Birds. 111 (5): 292–294.
8. ^ "Coward, Thomas Alfred". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press/A & C Black. December 2007. Retrieved 11 June 2011.

## External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thomas Coward.

Wikisource has original works by or about:
Thomas Alfred Coward

* "Coward, Thomas Alfred". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/45766. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
* Thomas Coward on Journalisted
* Works by Thomas Coward at Project Gutenberg
* Works by or about Thomas Coward at Internet Archive
* The Birds of the British Isles and Their Eggs Google Books. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
* Guardian 'Country Diary' columns

Professional and academic associations

Preceded by

Sir Henry Alexander Miers

|  President of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
1921–23  | Succeeded by

Harold Baily Dixon

* v
* t
* e

Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society

Presidents|

| 18th Century|

* Peter Mainwaring
* James Massey
* Dr Thomas Percival (I)

|

19th Century|

* Dr Thomas Percival (II)
* George Walker
* Thomas Henry (I)
* Dr John Hull
* Thomas Henry (II)
* John Dalton
* Dr Edward Holme
* Eaton Hodgkinson
* John Moore
* Sir William Fairbairn, Bt
* James Prescott Joule (I)
* Edward William Binney (I)
* Dr Robert Angus Smith
* Dr Henry Edward Schunck (I)
* James Prescott Joule (II)
* Edward William Binney (II)
* James Prescott Joule (III)
* Dr Henry Edward Schunck (II)
* Edward William Binney (III)
* James Prescott Joule (IV)
* Edward William Binney (IV)
* Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe
* William Crawford Williamson
* Robert Dukinfield Darbishire
* Balfour Stewart
* Osborne Reynolds
* Dr Henry Edward Schunck (III)
* Prof. Sir Arthur Schuster
* Henry Wilde
* Dr Henry Edward Schunck (IV)
* James Cosmo Melvill
* Prof. Sir Horace Lamb

20th Century|

* Prof. Sir Horace Lamb
* Charles Bailey
* Prof. Sir William Boyd Dawkins
* Sir William Henry Bailey
* Prof. Harold Baily Dixon (I)
* Francis Jones
* Prof. Frederick Ernest Weiss
* Francis Nicholson
* Prof. Sydney John Hickson
* William Thomson
* Prof. Sir Grafton Elliot Smith
* Prof. Sir Henry Alexander Miers
* Thomas Alfred Coward
* Prof. Harold Baily Dixon (II)
* Rev. Aloysius Laurence Cortie
* Herbert Levinstein
* Prof. Sir William Lawrence Bragg
* Charles Edmond Stromeyer
* Prof. Bernard Mouat Jones
* John Allan
* Prof. Reginald William James
* Robert Henry Clayton
* Prof. Douglas Rayner Hartree
* Prof. Herbert John Fleure
* Prof. Michael Polanyi
* Prof. Thomas Bertram Lonsdale Webster
* Dr Eric John Francis James
* Horace Hayhurst (I)
* Prof. Sir Geoffrey Jefferson
* Sir Peter Percy F. R. Venables
* Dr F. C. Toy
* C. E. Young
* Prof. Henry Solomon Lipson (I)
* Leonard Cohen
* Margaret Pilkington
* Horace Hayhurst (II)
* Brian Rodgers
* Dr George N. Burkhardt
* Dr George James Kynch
* Dr Edward Noah Abrahart
* Anthony Edmund Rivers Goulty
* Prof. Henry Solomon Lipson (II)
* Harry M. Fairhurst
* David G. Wilson
* Dr Lionel J. R. Postle
* Prof. Sir Netar P. Mallick (I)
* Dr Brian S. H. Rarity
* Philip G. Livesey
* Prof. Donald Stephen Lowell Cardwell
* Dr Edward Fletcher Cass
* Prof. Alexander Donnachie
* Dianne Wilson

21st Century|

* Iain E. Gillespie
* Angus G. D. Yeaman
* Keith D. Buckley
* Vivienne Blackburn
* Mary, Lady Mallick
* David J. Higginson
* Prof. Kenneth M. Letherman
* Prof. Sir Netar P. Mallick (II)
* Dr Diana M. Leitch
* Dr Susan R. Hilton
* Ian Cameron

Awards|

* Honorary Membership
* Dalton Medal

Lectures|

* Wilde
* Joule
* Dalton
* Percival
* Manchester

Publications|

* Memoirs and Proceedings
* Who's Who of Greater Manchester

* Category

Portals:

* United Kingdom
* Biography

Authority control

General|

* ISNI
* 1
* VIAF
* 1
* WorldCat

National libraries|

* Israel
* United States
* Netherlands

Scientific databases|

* CiNii (Japan)

Other|

* Social Networks and Archival Context
* SUDOC (France)
* 1
* Trove (Australia)
* 1

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