Bancroft, Thomas Lane (1860 - 1933)

Summary

Thomas Bancroft, son of Joseph Bancroft and father of Josephine Mackerras, was a well-known doctor and naturalist and included in his work studies on parasitology and the Queensland lung-fish. His most important discoveries were related to mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases, especially dengue fever - he identified the mosquito that carried the disease (Aeses aegypti mosquito). As a botanical collector, he contributed to the naming and classification of eucalypts.

Details

Born Lenton, Nottinghamshire, England, 2 January 1860. Died Wallaville, Queensland, 12 November 1933. Educated University of Edinburgh (MB, ChM 1883). Manchester Infirmary 1884; Geraldton (Innisfail) Hospital, Queensland 1885-86; pharmacological studies on plants 1886-94; Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand 1898; general practice with his father, Brisbane 1889-94; research on mosquitoes at Deception Bay 1894-1904; quarantine officer for the port of Brisbane 1904; temporary appointments with the State Health department 1905-06 to investigate dengue fever, beriberi and suspected cases of plague; government medical officer, Stannary Hills, near Cairns 1908-09; government medical officer, Eidsvold 1910-29; medical officer, Palm Island 1930-32. Collected plants for the Queensland Herbarium and animals for the Queensland Museum 1884-1932; many species were named after him.

Chronology

1904 - 1930

Career position - Medical officer at Eidsvold, Queensland

1917

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus bancroftii (Maiden) Maiden was named in his honour

1930 - 1932

Career position - Medical officer, Palm Islands

1934

Taxonomy event - Collected the type Eucalyptus seeana var. constricta Blakely

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland

• Thomas Lane Bancroft - Records, 1884, OM84-10; John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Collins, David, Chemistry in 19th Australia - Select Bibliography, An exhibition of the Encyclopedia circa 2005 with assistance from Ailie Smith and Gavan McCarthy., eScholarship Research Centre (original publisher), Melbourne, 2009, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/ciab/ciab_ALL.html. Details
• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Book Sections

• Marks, E. N., 'Bancroft, Thomas Lane (1860-1933), medical naturalist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 7: 1891 - 1939 A-Ch, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1979), pp. 164-165. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070167b.htm. Details

Edited Books

• Pearn, John and Powell, Laurie eds, The Bancroft Tradition (Brisbane: Amphion Press, 1991), 277 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Anon, 'Thomas Lane Bancroft', Medical Journal of Australia, 1934 (1) (1934), 512-4. Details
• Bancroft, T.L., 'Preliminary Notes on Some New Poisonous Plants Discovered on the Johnstone River, North Queensland', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 20 (1886), 69-71. Details
• Bancroft, T.L., 'On the Physiological Action of Daphnandra repandula', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 4 (1887), 13-16. Details
• Bancroft, T.L., 'On the Discovery of Saponin in Acacia delibrata', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 4 (1887), 10-11. Details
• Bancroft, T.L., 'On the Physiological Action of Cryptocarya australis', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 4 (1887), 12-13. Details
• Bancroft, T.L., 'On the Poisonous Property of Nicotiana suaveolens', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 4 (1887), 9-10. Details
• Bancroft, T.L., 'On the Materia Medica and Pharmacology of Queensland Plants.', Transactions of the 2nd Intercolonial Medical Congress of Australasia (1889), 927-931. Details
• Bancroft, T.L., 'Preliminary Notes on the Pharmacology of Some Poisonous Plants.', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales (1890), 1061-64. Details
• Bancroft, T.L., 'Preliminary Notes on the Pharmacology of Carissa ovata, var. stolonifera, Bail.', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 28 (1894), 44-47. Details
• Bancroft, Thomas L., 'Distillation of Native Essential Oils from a Commercial Aspect', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 7 (1889), 6-7. Details
• Bancroft, Thomas L., 'Preliminary Notes on Some New Poisonous Plants', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 8 (1890-1891), 35-36. Details
• Doherty, Ralph L., 'The Bancroft tradition in infectious desease research in Queensland, part 1', Medical Journal of Australia, 1978, v.2 (2 December) (1978), 560-3. Details
• Mackerras, I. M.; and Marks, Elizabeth N., 'The Bancrofts: a century of scientific endeavour [includes lists of publications]', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 84 (1) (1973), 1-34. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21538805. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/92744832. Details
• 'Bancroft, Thomas Lane (1860-1933)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-536024. Details

See also

• Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts: short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. Details