Lewis Henry Gough, zoologist, was the son of Archibald Edward Gough of the Indian Civil Service and his wife Ameilia Louisa Leupoldt. He qualified as Doctor of Philosophy (Phil Dr) at the University of Basle, Switzerland, in 1901 with a thesis on The development of Admetus pumilio Koch: a contribution to the embryology of the Pedipalpi (Strassburg, 1901, 34p). Subsequently he participated in the fishery and hydrographical investigations in the North Sea and adjacent waters (southern area), conducted by the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom during 1902-1903, and wrote its First report... (London, 1905). In 1903 he married Mathilda Ida Hagmann, daughter of the zoologist Carl Gottfried Hagmann.

In June 1906 Gough arrived in South Africa to take up an appointment as keeper of the collection of lower vertebrates and invertebrates (excluding insects) at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria. There followed several years of active research and publication. While working up the museum's collection of snakes he studied also the collections of the Albany Museum and the National Museum in Bloemfontein and was able to describe three new species. This work was reported in "Catalogue of snakes in the collection of the Transvaal Museum, Pretoria, the Albany Museum, Grahamstown, and the State Museum, Bloemfontein" in the Annals of the Transvaal Museum, (1908, Vol. 1(1), pp. 17-45). Next he worked through the collection of lizards, again with the help of the Albany Museum, describing those of the family Agamidae in "The South African species of Agama" (Ibid, 1909, Vol. 1(3), pp. 183-194). He also described a new species of horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus sp) from Pondoland (Ibid, 1908, Vol. 1(1), pp. 71-72).

Shortly after his arrival Gough was requested, on behalf of the director of agriculture of the Transvaal Colony, to study the intestinal worms occurring in South Africa. He started out by tracing about 1000 publications on the subject, while an examination of many mammals, birds and reptiles produced over 50 kinds of worms. His breeding experiments with the non-sexual Cysticerus tenuicellus from sheep and their development into mature tapeworms of the genus Tenia in the South African jackall, were reported in the Annals of the Transvaal Museum (1908, Vol. 1(1), pp. 62-63). Probably as a result of this work he was transferred to the new Veterinary Bacteriological Laboratories at Onderstepoort as zoologist in July 1908. There he continued his investigations on internal parasites, particularly certain tapeworms occurring in both sheep and wild antelopes. His work culminated in the publication of "A monograph of the tape-worms of the sub-family Avitellina..." in the Quarterly Journal of the Microscopical Society (1911, Vol. 54(2), pp. 317-385). Around this time he left Onderstepoort, where his helminthological work was taken over by F. Veglia* in 1912. Meanwhile he had also made a collection of mosquitoes, which he described in "On a collection of Anopheles made at Onderstepoort in the autumn of 1909" (Report of the Government Veterinary Bacteriologist (Transvaal), 1908/9, pp. 115-122).

Gough became a member of the South African Ornithologists' Union in 1906 and of the South African Philosophical Society in 1907, remaining a member when the latter became the Royal Society of South Africa in 1908. His "Note on a Coenurus of the Duikerbok" was published in the first volume of the society's Transactions (1908-1910, Vol. 1, pp. 343-346). He was a foundation member of the Transvaal Biological Society in 1908 and during 1908-1909 contributed several demonstrations and papers to its proceedings. Though he was not a member of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science he delivered a paper (unpublished) at its annual congress in 1907 on the distribution of South African snakes. The next year his "Notes on South African parasites", dealing with parasites of the groups Cestoda, Trematoda and Nematoda that he had observed in South Africa, were published in the association's Report for 1908 (pp. 167-170). Other publications by him included "Notes from the Transvaal Museum" in the Transvaal Agricultural Journal (1906-1907, Vol. 5, p. 375); "Description of a new species of Atractaspis, collected at Serowe, north eastern Kalahari" in the Records of the Albany Museum (1907, Vol. 2(2), pp.178-179); and "The anatomy of Stilisia Centripunctata" in the commemorative volume issued at the opening of the new laboratories at Onderstepoort in October 1908 (Transvaal Department of Agriculture, 1909).

After leaving South Africa Gough went to Egypt, where he was involved in combatting a serious cotton pest, the pink boll worm Gelechia gossypiella. He reported on this work in six Bulletins of the Egyptian Department of Agriculture during 1916-1922. The next year he was awarded the Order of the Nile (third class) by the King of Egypt. Later he appears to have returned to South Africa, for in 1937 he was a foundation member of the Entomological Society of South Africa.

List of sources:

Annals of the Transvaal Museum, 1908-1909, Vol. 1.

Cape of Good Hope. Report of the committee of the Albany Museum, 1906, 1907, 1908.

FamilySearch: Lewis Henry Gough, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FG63-KBC and https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939N-QW9B-8H?i=221&cc=1804330 Also Archibald Edward Gough, https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?q.givenName=Archibald Edward &q.surname=Gough and Mathilde Ida Hagmann, https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?q.givenName=Mathilde Ida &q.surname=Hagmann

Journal of the South African Ornithologists' Union, 1909, Vol. 5(3), list of members.

Lakshminarayanan, Shyamal. Personal communications and genealogical assistance, February 2024.

Lewis Henry Gough. Development of Admetus pumilio Koch. A contribution to the embryology of the Pedipalpi. Inaugural-dissertation, University of Basle. Retrieved on 12 February 2024 from https://archive.org/details/developmentofadm00gougrich/mode/1up

Mansell, M.W. The Entomological Society of Southern Africa - a historical review. African Entomology, 1993, Vol. 1(1), pp. 109-120.

National Union Catalogue, pre-1956 imprints. London: Mansell, 1968-1980.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Gough, L.H. / Dr Gough.

Ortlepp, R.J. 'n Oorsig van Suid-Afrikaanse helminte, veral met verwysing na die wat in ons wildherkouers voorkom. Tydskrif vir Natuurwetenskappe, 1961, Vol. 1, pp. 203-212.

Records of the Albany Museum, 1907, Vol. 2(2).

Report of the Government Veterinary Bacteriologist (Transvaal), 1908/9, paper by Gough.

Royal Society of South Africa. Transactions, 1908-1910, Vol. 1.

South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Report, 1907, 1908.

South African Philosophical Society. Transactions, 1907, Vol. 17, list of members.

Transvaal Agricultural Journal, 1906-1907, Vol. 5.

The Transvaal Biological Society. South African Journal of Natural History, 1918, Vol. 1(1), pp. 24-32.

Transvaal Department of Agriculture. Report, 1908/9.

Transvaal Department of Agriculture. The Veterinary Bacteriological Laboratories. Pretoria, 1909.

Transvaal Museum. Annual Report, 1905/6, 1906/7, 1907/8 (National Archives, Pretoria, Vol. TKP196 and TKP277).

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2024-08-09 11:41:05