Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ludlam, Henry

1448444Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 34 — Ludlam, Henry1893Bernard Barham Woodward ‎

LUDLAM, HENRY (1824–1880), mineralogist, born 14 Oct. 1824, was educated for the profession of an architect, but adopted instead that of land surveyor, a calling which he subsequently abandoned for commerce.

Ludlam devoted his leisure to the pursuit of mineralogy, and brought together one of the finest private collections of minerals in the kingdom. This collection, which included those made by Turner and Nevill, was bequeathed to the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street, rendering that collection second only to the one at the Natural History Museum. Ludlam left unfinished at his death a descriptive and crystallographic catalogue of his collection, and in order to perfect the undertaking began late in life the study of chemistry. He died unmarried on 23 June 1880.

He was a fellow of the Geological and a member of the Mineralogical Society.

[Information kindly supplied by the late T. Davies of the Mineral. Department, Nat. Hist. Museum; Nature, xxii. 203; Geol. Mag. 1880, p. 336.]

B. B. W.