Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Collingwood, Cuthbert
COLLINGWOOD, CUTHBERT (1826–1908), naturalist, born at Greenwich on 25 Dec. 1826, was fifth of six sons of Samuel Collingwood, architect and contractor, of Wellington Grove, Greenwich, by his wife Frances, daughter of Samuel Collingwood, printer to Oxford University. Educated at King's College School, he matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 8 April 1845, and graduated B.A. in 1849, proceeding M.A. in 1852 and M.B. in 1854. He subsequently studied at Edinburgh University and at Guy's Hospital, and spent some time in the medical schools of Paris and Vienna. From 1858 to 1866 he held the appointment of lecturer on botany to the Royal Infirmary Medical School at Liverpool. Elected F.L.S. in 1853, he served on the council in 1868. He also lectured on biology at the Liverpool School of Science.
In 1865 he issued 'Twenty-one Essays on Various Subjects, Scientific and Literary.' In 1866-7 he served as surgeon and naturalist on H.M.S. Rifleman and Serpent on voyages of exploration in the China Seas, and made interesting researches in marine zoology. One result of the expedition was his 'Rambles of a Naturalist on the Shores and Waters of the China Seas' (1868). Returning to Liverpool he became senior physician of the Northern Hospital and took a leading part in the intellectual life of the city. In 1876-7 he travelled in Palestine and Egypt. Collingwood was through life a prominent member of the New Church (Swedenborgian). Besides 'The Travelling Birds' (1872) and forty papers on natural history in scientific periodicals he published many expositions of his religious beliefs, of which the chief were: 'A Vision of Creation,' a poem with an introduction, critical and geological (1872); 'New Studies in Christian Theology ' (Anon. 1883); and 'The Bible and the Age, Principles of Consistent Interpretation' (1886). For the last years of his life he resided in Paris, where he died on 20 Oct. 1908. He married Clara (d. 1871), daughter of Lieut.-col. Sir Robert Mowbray of Cockavine, N.B.; he had no issue.
[The Times, 22 Oct. 1908; New Church Mag., 1908, p. 575; Who's Who, 1908.]