James Alan Moy-Thomas | |
Birth Date: | 12 September 1908 |
Birth Place: | London |
Occupation: | Palaeontologist |
Spouse: | Joy Mitchell |
James Alan Moy-Thomas (12 September 1908 – 29 February 1944) was an English palaeontological ichthyologist.
The son of Alan Moy-Thomas and his wife Gertrude, he was born in London. He had a younger brother Edward and an older sister Joan Caroline. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with a first class degree in zoology in 1930[1]
He authored numerous papers on palaeontological ichthyology.
In 1933 he married Joy Mitchell in Wharfedale, Yorkshire.
In 1941 he was granted a Commission in the Special Duties Branch (i.e. intelligence) of the RAF.[2] His service number was 66643.
He died in a motor vehicle accident in 1944[3] and was buried in Cambridge.[4] An obituary was published in The Times,[5] and another by Edwin Stephen Goodrich was published in Nature.[6]
Two genera of Palaeozoic fish, Jamoytius and Moythomasia, are named after him.[7]
His brother Edward died later that year on active service in the Netherlands, during Operation Market Garden.[8]