Philip Herbert Carpenter, Master of Arts, Doctor of Science, Fellow of the Royal Society, British naturalist and crinoid authority, was the fourth son of Doctor William Benjamin Carpenter.
Education
Carpenter was educated at University College School, then at University College, and afterwards became a Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1874. He was a member of the scientific staff of the deep-sea exploring expeditions of His Majesty’s Ship Lightning (1868) and Porcupine (1869–1870). In 1875, he was appointed assistant naturalist to His Majesty’s Ship Valorous accompanying Admiral Sir George Strong Nares"s Arctic expedition to Disco Island, and spent the summer sounding and dredging in Davis Strait and the North Atlantic.
Career
He took his own life, by self-administration of chloroform during a bout of temporary insanity caused by chronic insomnia. After the 1872-1876 HMS Challenger expedition had returned, he was asked in January 1878 by Sir Wyville Thomson to describe the free-swimming Crinoids that had been collected. Doctor Carpenter was an expert on the morphology of the echinoderms, especially the crinoids, both contemporary and fossil.
In 1883, he was awarded the Lyell Fund by the Geological Society of London in recognition of the scientific value of his work, and in 1885 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.