{{Short description|British surgeon and museum curator}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}} {{Use British English|date=March 2023}} {{infobox person |name=John Thomas Pearson |birth_date={{birth date|1801|8|22|df=y}} |death_date={{death date and age|1851|3|5|1801|8|22|df=y}} |death_place=Barrackpore, West Bengal, India |occupation=Surgeon |spouse={{marriage|Frances Fitzpatrick|1827}} }} '''John Thomas Pearson''' (22 August 1801 – 5 March 1851) was a British surgeon who worked in the East India Company in India. He was also briefly the curator of the museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Pearson received his MRCS in 1825 and became an assistant surgeon in Bengal in 1826 and rose to the rank of surgeon in 1841.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|author=Crawford, D.G. |year=1930|title=Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615-1930. Volume I.|publisher=W. Thacker & Co.|place= London|page=91}}</ref> While in Darjeeling, he took a keen interest in the local zoology, sending specimens to England for identification. ''Belomys pearsonii'' was named after him by his friend from medical student days, J. E. Gray, in 1842.<ref>{{cite journal|url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2324287 |title= Descriptions of some new genera and fifty unrecorded species of Mammalia| author=Gray, J.E.| year= 1842| journal=The Annals and Magazine of Natural History; Zoology, Botany, and Geology| volume=10| pages=255–267 }}</ref> ''Rhinolophus pearsonii'' was named after him by Horsfield in 1851.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}
Pearson was made curator of the Asiatic Society in July 1833 and held the position until 1835 as a favour to James Prinsep. During this period he described the hispid hare and a new species of kingfisher, ''Pelargopsis amauroptera''.<ref>{{cite journal|url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39758119 |author=Pearson, J. T.|year= 1841| title= Catalogue of the birds in the museum of the Asiatic Society| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|volume=10|issue=2| pages=628–660}}<br>- {{cite journal|author=Pearson, J. T. |year=1839| title= Observations on the "Report on the museum of the Asiatic Society, by Dr. Wm. Jameson," published in the Journal for March, 1839| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|volume=8 |pages= 419–429| url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40036514 }}</ref> This was a period of flux at the Asiatic Society of Bengal and there were complaints from a Dr William Jameson that Pearson had not maintained the museum in order.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40036322|title=Report on the Museum of the Asiatic Society| author=Jameson, William|pages=241–244| year=1839| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|volume=8 }}</ref>
He married Frances Fitzpatrick in Calcutta on 7 March 1827.<ref>{{cite book|title= The Quarterly Oriental Magazine, Review, and Register, part 76, volume 7| publisher=Thacker and Company| year= 1827 |page=55}}</ref> He died at Barrackpur.<ref name=":0" />
== References == {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, John Thomas}} Category:1801 births Category:1851 deaths Category:People from the Bengal Presidency Category:British people in British India Category:Medical doctors from British India Category:Medical doctors from Kolkata