Item 19 - Autograph notes on 'Madagascar'

Brindley was born in June 1865, son of John Beavis Brindley, barrister at law. He entered St John's College in 1884 and, in 1887, graduated BA with a Third Class in Part I of the Natural Sciences Tripos. He was Demonstrator in Elementary Biology, 1915-26, and then University Demonstrator in Zoology, 1926-34. He contributed to the study of variation of the Mollusca and the Orthoptera group of insects, and acted as an Examiner in zoology at Glasgow University, 1915-18 and 1925-6. He was also a Fellow of St John's, and, from 1914 to 1923, Steward of the College.

Brindley was deeply interested in shipping, and rose to distinction as a nautical archaeologist. He was a founding member of the Navy Records Society and of the Society for Nautical Research, serving as its Vice-President. In 1935 he was Head of the Seal Room of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Brindley's first wife, Gertrude Roberta Froggatt, died in 1921, leaving him a son and a daughter. He married Maud Doria Haviland in 1922 and they had one daughter. Brindley died 18 February 1944.