Background
His father, Laurence Edmondston, was also an accomplished naturalist.
His father, Laurence Edmondston, was also an accomplished naturalist.
The family of Edmondston (also spelt Edmonston) was prominent in 19th-century Shetland. Edmondston the botanist compiled the first known list of Shetland plants at the age of 11 and which he showed to the visiting Sir Joseph Hooker, an eminent botanist of the time. He discovered several rare plants growing on the serpentine rocks on Unst, including the endemic Shetland Mouse-ear Cerastium nigrescens, known as Edmondston"s Chickweed on the island.
Less well-known is his fauna, mainly a list of birds, published in the journal The Zoologist in 1844.
Thomas Edmondston was appointed Professor of Botany at Anderson"s University in Glasgow (now University of Strathclyde), at the age of just 20. A few months later, he was offered the position of naturalist on board HMS Herald, on a journey retracing the voyage of HMS Beagle, and Charles Darwin became a frequent correspondent with requests for further observations.
While disembarking from a boat on the coast of South America, however, Edmondston was killed by an accidentally discharged gun, cutting short a career of great promise.