Charles Waterton (1782–1865): Curare and a Canadian National Park

Abstract

Charles Waterton was born on 3 June 1782 at Walton Hall, near Wakefield in the north of England. He was known as the Squire of Walton Hall and became one of England’s best-known nineteenth-century naturalists and taxidermists. At the age of 14 he was sent to the newly founded Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, which was run by Jesuit priests, with whom he kept up correspondence and visits throughout his long life. In 1804, at the age of 22, he left England to manage family estates in Demerara, in what is now Guyana. Then in 1812 he gave up the estates and set off on the first of his four Wanderings in South America, which are described in a book of that title, first published in 1825 and most recently republished in 1975 [1]. The remainder of his life was devoted to natural history, taxidermy and the establishment of the world’s first bird sanctuary at Walton Hall. He died in May 1865 and is buried in the grounds of Walton Hall, which has recently been restored and is now a most attractive country club.