Editing Ray Lankester (section)

== Life ==
Ray Lankester was born on 15 May 1847 on Burlington Street<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf}}</ref> in [[London]], the son of [[Edwin Lankester]], a coroner<ref>{{cite journal|title=Lankester, Edwin Ray|journal=Who's Who|year=1907|volume= 59|page=1019|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1019|last1=Addison|first1=Henry Robert|last2=Oakes|first2=Charles Henry|last3=Lawson|first3=William John|last4=Sladen|first4=Douglas Brooke Wheelton}}</ref> and doctor-naturalist who helped eradicate [[cholera]] in London, and his wife, the botanist and author [[Phebe Lankester]]. Ray Lankester was probably named after the naturalist [[John Ray]]: his father had just edited the memorials of John Ray for the [[Ray Society]].

In 1855 Ray went to boarding school at [[Leatherhead]], and in 1858 to [[St Paul's School (London)|St Paul's School]]. His university education was at [[Downing College, Cambridge]], and [[Christ Church, Oxford]];<ref>{{acad|id=LNKR864ER|name=Lankester, Edwin Ray}}</ref> he transferred from Downing, after five terms, at his parents' behest because Christ Church had better teaching in the form of the newly appointed [[George Rolleston]].<ref>[[#Lester|Lester]], pp. 17–19.</ref>

Lankester achieved first-class honours in 1868. His education was rounded off by study visits to [[Vienna]], [[Leipzig]] and [[Jena]], and he did some work at the [[Stazione Zoologica]] at [[Naples]]. He took the examination to become a [[Fellow]] of [[Exeter College, Oxford]], and studied under [[Thomas Henry Huxley|Thomas H. Huxley]] before taking his [[Master of Arts (Oxbridge and Dublin)|MA]].

Lankester therefore had a far better education than most English biologists of the previous generation, such as [[T.H. Huxley|Huxley]], [[Alfred Russel Wallace|Wallace]] and [[Henry Walter Bates|Bates]]. Even so, it could be argued that the influence of his father Edwin and his friends were just as important. Huxley<ref>{{cite book|title=The Scientific Memoirs of Thomas Henry Huxley|year=1898|volume=I|location=London|publisher=Macmillan & Co|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s4MAAAAAMAAJ}} Upon Huxley's death, as a memorial tribute, Lankester and [[Michael Foster (physiologist)|Sir Michael Foster]] edited his collected works in four volumes.</ref> was a close friend of the family, and whilst still a child Ray met [[Joseph Dalton Hooker|Hooker]], [[Arthur Henfrey (botanist)|Henfrey]], [[William Kingdon Clifford|Clifford]], [[Philip Henry Gosse|Gosse]], [[Richard Owen|Owen]], [[Edward Forbes|Forbes]], [[William Benjamin Carpenter|Carpenter]], [[Charles Lyell|Lyell]], [[Roderick Murchison|Murchison]], [[John Stevens Henslow|Henslow]] and [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]].<ref>[[#Lester|Lester]], pp. 9–11.</ref>

He was a large man with a large presence, of warm human sympathies and in his childhood a great admirer of [[Abraham Lincoln]]. His interventions, responses and advocacies were often colourful and forceful, as befitted an admirer of Huxley, for whom he worked as a demonstrator when a young man. In his personal manner he was not so adept as Huxley, and he made enemies by his rudeness.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Huxley|first=Julian|title=Memories|publisher=Allen & Unwin|year=1970|page=129}}</ref> This undoubtedly damaged and limited the second half of his career.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Doyle |first1=Arthur Conan |title=Memories and Adventures |date=16 February 2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-04404-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LKusgEu5uvUC |language=en}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=November 2022}}

Lankester appears, thinly disguised, in several novels. He is the model for Sir Roderick Dover in [[H. G. Wells]]' ''[[Marriage (novel)|Marriage]]'' (Wells had been one of his students), and in [[Robert Briffault]]'s ''Europa'', which contains a brilliant portrait of Lankester, including his friendship with [[Karl Marx]]. (Lankester was one of the thirteen people at Marx's funeral.)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1883/death/dersoz1.htm |title=Karl Marx's Funeral |last=Engels |first=Friedrich |author-link=Friedrich Engels |publisher=[[marxists.org]] |date=22 March 1883 |access-date=4 June 2018}}</ref> He has also been suggested as the model for [[Professor Challenger]] in [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s ''[[The Lost World (Conan Doyle novel)|The Lost World]]'',<ref>[[#Lester|Lester]], pp. 60, 187–8, 199–202.</ref> but Doyle himself said that Challenger was based on a professor of physiology at the University of Edinburgh named [[William Rutherford (physiologist)|William Rutherford]].<ref>pxxiii in the Oxford ed of ''The Lost World''. William Rutherford (1839–1899), holder of the Edinburgh Chair of Physiology from 1874.</ref><ref>Arthur Conan Doyle 1930. [https://books.google.com/books/about/Memories_and_Adventures.html?id=LKusgEu5uvUC ''Memories and adventures'']. Murray, London. p. 32.</ref>

Lankester never married. In 1895, he was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest while in the company of a group of female prostitutes on the street, but was acquitted.<ref>The Professor And The Policeman, ''Birmingham Daily Post'', 7 October 1895, p5.</ref> (It is incorrect, as has been alleged,<ref>McKenna, Neil "The Secret Life Of Oscar Wilde", Century, 2003, p. 250.</ref> that the charge concerned homosexual offences.) He died in [[London]] on 13 August 1929.

A finely decorated memorial plaque to him can be seen at the [[Golders Green Crematorium]], Hoop Lane, London.