Document information

Physical location:

Royal Society of London, JBO - Journal Books. 79.00.00a

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to the Royal Society of London, 1879 [79.00.00a]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1870-9/1879/79-00-00a-final.odt>, accessed June 16, 2026

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from the Journal Books (JBO - meetings of the ordinary meetings of the Society), entry for the meeting of 11 December 1879.
[A Certificate was presented in favour of Sir Samuel Wilson, Knt. and was ordered to be suspended in the Meeting Room. It was signed from personal knowledge:- John Gould – Richard Owen – A Günther – George Verdon – W. H. Gregory – Ferd. von Mueller – R. L. J. Ellery: and from General knowledge:- A. R. Campbell-Johnston.]
2
In November 2019 neither the printed List of Candidates (see Home (2002), p. 312), which would include the citation provided by the supporters, nor Wilson's lapsed certificate could be produced. Wilson was not elected in the next ballot in 1880, and was not brought forward in a later year (Home (2003), p. 72). Gregory was a former politician and Governor of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and member of the Privy Council, elected FRS in 1878 as one of the 'privilged class; Campbell-Johnston was a former Governor of Hong Kong elected as a Fellow in 1845, his certificate citing publications and his 'acquaintance with the science of natural history particularly in Zoology & Mineralogy'.