George Edwards (1694-1773)

George Edwards FRS was an English naturalist and ornithologist, known as the "father of British ornithology". Edwards was born at West Ham, then in the county of Essex. In his early years, he travelled extensively through mainland Europe, studying natural history, and gained a reputation for his colored drawings of animals, especially birds. He was appointed as beadle to the Royal College of Physicians in 1733. Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition in 1758 listing a binomial name for every plant and animal. For many of the birds he cited the description and illustration in A Natural History of Uncommon Birds.