Background
He was born in Anstruther, Fife, Scotland, and died at Saint James, Cape Town, South Africa.
He was born in Anstruther, Fife, Scotland, and died at Saint James, Cape Town, South Africa.
He obtained a Doctor of Philosophy at Jena University, Germany in 1894, and later held the post of Professor and Director of Fisheries and Marine Biological Survey of South Africa, in Cape Town.
He is the recognised authority for many genera and species of fish, such as Paralichthodes algoensis, the peppered flounder. His standard transcript under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is Gilchrist.
The genus Gilchristella, a member of the Clupeidae (herring) family, was named in 1935 in his honour.