James Alan Moy-Thomas

James Alan Moy-Thomas (12 September 1908 – 29 February 1944) was an English palaeontological ichthyologist.

James Alan Moy-Thomas
Born	(1908-09-12)12 September 1908 London
Died	29 February 1944(1944-02-29) (aged 35)
Occupation	Palaeontologist
Spouse	Joy Mitchell

The son of Alan Moy-Thomas and his wife Gertrude, he was born in London. He had a younger brother Edward and an older sister Joan Caroline. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with a first class degree in zoology in 1930^[1]

He authored numerous papers on palaeontological ichthyology.

In 1933 he married Joy Mitchell in Wharfedale, Yorkshire.

In 1941 he was granted a Commission in the Special Duties Branch (i.e. intelligence) of the RAF.^[2] His service number was 66643.

He died in a motor vehicle accident in 1944^[3] and was buried in Cambridge.^[4] An obituary was published in The Times,^[5] and another by Edwin Stephen Goodrich was published in Nature.^[6]

Two genera of Palaeozoic fish, Jamoytius and Moythomasia, are named after him.^[7]

His brother Edward died later that year on active service in the Netherlands, during Operation Market Garden.^[8]