Bot at 19:05, 6 March 2021

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{{Short description|English surgeon and naturalist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
'''Herbert Walton''' (19 January 1869 – 4 May 1938) was an English [[surgeon]] and [[naturalist]].
Born in [[London]] on 19 January 1869, he was the second child and elder son of James Sydney Walton and Eleanor Georgina Louissan, his wife. Walton was initially educated in Paris, before entering private schools in England, culminating in [[Charterhouse School|Charterhouse]] (1881–84); he went on to study medicine at [[St Bartholomew's Hospital]].<ref name=Plarr>Plarr, V. (1938). ''Plarr's Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.'' Vol. 3, p. 815. Royal College of Surgeons, London.</ref>

==Career==
Walton's first post was as assistant house surgeon at the Salop Infirmary, Shrewsbury. He graduated with honours at the [[Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery|M.B.]] examination at the [[University of London]], and later won the gold medal at the [[Doctor of Medicine|M.D.]] He went on to join the [[Netley Hospital]] before passing first into the [[Indian Medical Service]]. He was gazetted [[lieutenant]] on 29 July 1896, winning both the [[Montefiore Prize]] for military surgery, and the [[Martin Memorial Medal]] for military medicine. Choosing to serve in [[Bengal]], Walton served on the North West Frontier in 1897-98, and in China in 1900 during the [[China Relief Expedition|Relief of Peking]].<ref name=Plarr/>

===Tibet Expedition===
In 1903-4, Walton was appointed a member of the [[Tibet Frontier Commission]], acting as both medical officer and naturalist to the [[British Expedition to Tibet]]. The mission temporarily established its headquarters at Changlo Manor, just outside [[Gyantse]], where Walton took it upon himself to attend to the needs of the local populace, notably performing operations to correct cleft palates, a particularly common affliction in Tibet.

Walton's copious notes on the flora and fauna of Tibet are compiled in Landon's ''The Opening of Tibet''; he also discovered and collected the rare ''[[Buddleja tibetica]]''.<ref name=Landon>Landon, P. (1905). ''The Opening of Tibet''. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York.</ref>

===Military ranks===

Walton was promoted captain in 1899, major 1908, and finally [[lieutenant-colonel]] in 1916. He served with the army until May 1905, when he was appointed civil surgeon to the [[United Provinces of British India|United Provinces]] (now [[Uttar Pradesh]]). He briefly held the post of Chair of Pathology at [[King George's Medical University|King George's Medical College]], [[Lucknow]], before reverting to military service in 1915.<ref name=Plarr/>

===Retirement===

Walton retired in 1919, returning to England and settling in [[Godalming]], where he died in 1938. He never married.<ref name=Plarr/>

==Published works==
*Walton, H. J. Appendix A: Notes on the natural history of southern Tibet, in: Landon, P. (1905). ''The Opening of Tibet'', p. 419–432. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York.

==Eponymy==
''[[Artemisia waltoni]]'' <small>J. R. Drumm. ex Pampanini</small>, discovered and collected by Walton at [[Gyangtse]] on the British Expedition to Tibet, was named for him by the Scottish botanist [[James Ramsay Drummond|James Drummond]], curator of the herbarium at the [[Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden|Calcutta Royal Botanic Gardens]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walton, Herbert James}}
[[Category:1869 births]]
[[Category:1938 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of London]]
[[Category:English surgeons]]
[[Category:19th-century English people]]
[[Category:20th-century English people]]
[[Category:Scientists from London]]
[[Category:English naturalists]]
[[Category:Indian Medical Service officers]]

Herbert James Walton - Revision history

Bot at 19:05, 6 March 2021