Frederick William FITZSIMONS

1871 - 1951  (79 years)

• Name	Frederick William FITZSIMONS
  Born	6 Aug 1871	Garvaghay, Ireland   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Source Reference	1908 Who's Who of South Africa
  Occupation	Director Port Elizabeth Museum
  Died	25 Mar 1951	Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa   [2]
  Person ID	I67	Irish in South Africa
  Last Modified	8 May 2020

  
  

  Family	Henrietta RUSSELL,   b. 1879, Gilford, Ireland ,   d. 9 Oct 1945, Sanatorium Road, Durban, South Africa  (Age 66 years)
  Married	27 Jul 1900	Pietermaritzburg, South Africa   [3]
  	Type: Civil
  Children	1. Vivian Frederick Maynard FITZSIMONS,   b. 7 Feb 1901, Natal, South Africa  [Birth]   2. Desmond Charles FITZSIMONS,   b. 1906,   d. 1963  (Age 57 years)  [Birth]
  Last Modified	8 May 2020
  Family ID	F295	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

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• Sources

  [S6] SABIODIC, 563, 8 May 2020. Fitzsimons, who came to South Africa in 1881, was educated in Ireland and Natal. He became curator of the Pietermaritzburg Museum in 1897, was transferred to the Natal Government Museum, where he classified and catalogued all the departments, and from 1906 built up the Museum in Port Elizabeth as its director. Here in 1918 he established the well-known snake-park, the first in Africa and second in the world. As an authority on the snakes of South Africa and their venoms he gained an international reputation and did pioneer work on the production of anti-snake-bite serum. Fitz Simons has been described as `the Fabre of South Africa'. He was also interested in psychic research and anthropology. Of great importance were his discoveries regarding coastal Bushmen; his Boskop skull made him famous in the world of science. He married Henrietta Patricia Russell, a prominent social worker and suffragette. Vivian Frederick Maynard Fitzimons, one of his sons, was born at Pietermaritzburg on 7 Feb. 1901, was educated at Port Elizabeth and proceeded to Rhodes University College, where he obtained an M.Sc. in 1923. In 1942 he obtained the degree of D.Sc. in zoology at the University of the Witwatersrand with a dissertation on The lizards of South Africa. He joined the staff of the Transvaal Museum in 1924 and in 1945 became acting director; his appointment as director followed in 1947, and he retired in 1966. Under his direction the Transvaal Museum developed into a natural science research centre, with a research station in the Namib Desert. He wrote a standard work, Snakes of Southern Africa (1962) and was awarded a D.Sc. honoris causa by Rhodes University in 1967. The other son, Desmond Charles Fitzsimons (1906-63), was the founder and owner of the Durban snake-park and Director of the Clinsearch Serum Laboratories in Cape Town. Works of F. W. Fitzsimons: The snakes of South Africa (1910 and 1926); The monkey folk of South Africa (1911) ; The natural history of South Africa, 6 vol. (1919-2923); Snakes and the treatment of snake-bite (1929):, Pythons and their ways (1930); Snakes (1932); Opening the psychic door (1933). D. C. FITZSIMONS [S6] SABIODIC, 563. [S3] FS, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-66RQ-C2Y?i=618&cc=2063749&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AKDCL-NZF. marriage