13 Facts About Edgar Thurston

Edgar Thurston was the British Superintendent at the Madras Government Museum from 1885 to 1908 who contributed to research studies in the fields of zoology, ethnology and botany of India, and later published his works at the museum.

Edgar Thurston succeeded Frederick S Mullaly as the Superintendent of Ethnography for the Madras Presidency.

Edgar Thurston was the son of Charles Bosworth Thurston of Kew, London.

Edgar Thurston worked as a medical officer in Kent County Lunatic Asylum and became a curator of the museum at King's College before joining the Madras Museum in 1885 as a superintendent.

Edgar Thurston believed that intelligence was inversely proportional to the breadth of the nose and claimed that he scrutinised this as well as handwriting when recruiting clerks in his office.

Edgar Thurston gave lectures to the students of the Madras University and sometimes to the Madras Police on practical anthropology during the 1890s, and he trained the Madras Police in the use of anthropometry for criminal identification.

The Bertillon system had already been incorporated in the Bengal and Madras Police departments by the 1890s and Edgar Thurston's training was intended to help the police identify membership of what were then termed as "criminal castes".

In 1901, Edgar Thurston was appointed to the Ethnographic Survey of India project, established at that time following the success of Herbert Hope Risley's Ethnographic Survey of Bengal.

Edgar Thurston worked as a part of this project to collect accurate anthropometric measurements.

Edgar Thurston did this work alongside his role as superintendent of the Madras Museum, a position that he did not leave until 1908.

Edgar Thurston made numerous collections of plant and animals specimens, many of which were sent to the British Museum.

Edgar Thurston was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal, first class, on 26 June 1902.

Edgar Thurston retired to England and spent his winters at Penzance where he studied the local plants and regularly hosted a New Year party for the local botanists.