62 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Secretary, an office which has now for nearly 26 years devolved upon
Mr. Thompson and for which Mr. Salmon has shown marked suitability.
Your Council trusts that this appointment will meet with the general
approval of the members.
In conclusion, the Council wishes again to call the attention of members
to the urgent necessity of bringing forward new members, to compensate
the grievous losses by death and the normal resignations for various
causes, and trusts that the response to this appeal will be gratifying.
OBITUARY NOTICES.
ROBERT PAULSON (1857-1935).
It is with deep regret that we have to record the death, on
the 1st March last, of Mr. Robert Paulson, who served the Essex
Field Club as its President during the three years 1920-21 to
1922-23. Mr. Paulson was born at Hendon, but most of his
early years were spent at Ore, near Hastings, and it is probably
due in great measure to this circumstance that he acquired the
intense love of Nature, especially of plants, which dominated his
whole life.
Entering the teaching profession, he eventually became
headmaster of one of the larger London schools, and he used all
the means which this position gave him to inculcate in his
assistants and pupils a knowledge and love of wild nature. This
was true also of much voluntary work, undertaken outside his
ordinary school routine, in connection with botany classes at
Toynbee Hall and other similar Institutions.
In furtherance of his own studies and for the enrichment of
his herbarium he made numerous journeys to various parts of
the British Isles and the Continent, especially Switzerland. He
also joined and took his full share in the activities of many
scientific Societies, such as the Hackney Microscopical Society,
the Toynbee Natural History Society, the Quekett Microscopical
Club, the Royal Microscopical Society, the British Mycological
Society and the Linnean Society.
For some years before joining the Essex Field Club he had
occasionally sent notes to the Essex Naturalist and had also
acted as botanical referee on various excursions. In 1899 he
became a member of the Club and from that time onwards until
within a year or two of his death rendered yeoman service, acting
almost continuously as a botanical referee, as a member of
Council and as a reader of notes and papers at our meetings. His