Francis Archer

Francis Archer MRCS (1803–1875) was an Irish physician and naturalist.

He was born in Belfast on April 23, 1803, the son of a well-known Belfast bookseller.[1] He studied medicine at Edinburgh.[2] He practiced in Liverpool, where he was the prison surgeon.[3][4]

He was married to Frances Fletcher. They had six children.[5]

As a naturalist, he specialized in conchology, initiating what became the basis for a large family collection, some of which later became part of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and also the Melvill-Tomlin collection of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.

Archer was one of the founder members of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society.[1] Later he became the first President of the Liverpool Natural History Society. He was a member of the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society.[4] He also was a member of the Belfast Phrenological Society.[2]

He died on April 5, 1875.

His two sons continued the work of their father --- Francis Archer Jr. (1839–92), a solicitor, journalist and naturalist who collected Mollusca which he obtained on trips to Puffin Island and Liverpool, in conjunction with research activities of the Liverpool Biological Society; and Samuel Archer, (1836–1902), an Army surgeon and ship's surgeon on the SS Great Britain,[6] who collected shells in Singapore and many other parts of the world where he traveled, both with his regiment and in retirement.[5]