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Dr William Evans Hoyle FRSE (28 January 1855 – 7 February 1926)[1] was a British zoologist. A specialist in deep sea creatures, he worked on classification and illustrations from the Challenger expedition from 1882 to 1888.
Hoyle was born in Manchester, the son of William Jennings Hoyle, an engraver.
He was educated at Owens College and at Exeter College and Christ Church, Oxford where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1877, Master of Arts in 1882 and a Doctor of Science, he was also Member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
He was the Director of the Manchester Museum from 1889 to 1909 and then was the first director of the National Museum of Wales from 1909 up to his retirement in 1926. Trained as a medical anatomist, Hoyle is most famous for his monographic studies on cephalopods from major exploring expeditions of his era including the Challenger, the Albatross, the British National Antarctic Expedition and the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition.
In 1883 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir John Murray, Morrison Watson, John Gray McKendrick and James Cossar Ewart.[2]
Hoyle authored many first descriptions of cephalopods, including (but not limited to) those tabled below.
| Genus | species | Common name | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hapalochlaena | maculosa | Southern blue-ringed octopus | 1883 |
| Metasepia | pfefferi | Flambuoyant cuttlefish | 1885 |
| Muusoctopus | levis | 1885 | |
| Octopus | australis | Hammer octopus | 1885 |
| Octopus | hongkongensis | 1885 | |
| Octopus | pallidus | Pale octopus | 1885 |
| Octopus | vitiensis | 1885 | |
| Pyroteuthis | Fire squid | 1904 | |
| Sepia | cultrata | Knifebone cuttlefish or Elongated cuttlefish | 1885 |
| Sepia | kiensis | 1885 | |
| Sepia | novaehollandiae | New Holland cuttlefish | 1909 |
| Sepia | papuensis | Papuan cuttlefish | 1885 |
| Sepia | smithi | Smith's cuttlefish | 1885 |
In 1906 he served as President of the Museums Association of Great Britain.
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He married twice: firstly in 1883 to Edith Isabel Sharp (d.1916); secondly in 1918 to Mrs Florence Ethel Mabel Hallett, a widow.[3]
There is a portrait of Hoyle in oils at the National Museum of Wales.[4]
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