George Ure Skinner (1804 – 1867)
One of the better-known orchid names is the species epithet skinneri…
 Lycaste skinneri |
Mr. Skinner was born to a scholarly English family. However, he wanted to join the Navy and/or become a naturalist. In deference to his father’s wishes, he accepted some training as a bank clerk and then entered the merchant business. This gave him an opportunity to travel to Guatemala in 1831, where he successfully established a healthy export business.
In his free time, he collected birds and insects from Guatemala, which he sent to the Museum of Natural History in Manchester, England. James Bateman subsequently wrote to him with a request for some of those fashionable orchids, carefully describing them to Mr. Skinner.
And so George Ure Skinner caught the “Orchid Bug”. From the day he received Bateman’s letter, he began collecting and shipping orchids from Guatemala – all new, unknown, beautiful species. The list of his orchid introductions is lengthy, as is a list of those named in his honour.
Skinner also contributed considerably to ornithology. He was always glad to give a helping hand to any traveller, naturalist and orchidist. He himself organized the famous English orchid auctions. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean 39 times. In 1866 he decided to retire to England with his collections, but he died very suddenly of yellow fever in January 1867, while still winding up his business in Guatemala.
Ingrid Schmidt-Ostrander - Canadian Orchid Congress