Edmond Symonds, son of Reverend George Edward Symonds, Rector of Thaxted, Essex, and his wife Mary Ellen Elwin, was born either in 1850, 1852, 1853 or 1854. He studied medicine at University College, London, and qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) of England in 1875 and as a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians (LRCP) of London in 1877. For the next two years he worked as a ship's surgeon for the Eastern Telegraph Company and practiced briefly in association with Dr H. Grace. He emigrated to the Orange Free State (now the Free State) in 1879 and was licensed to practice in the Cape Colony (and hence in the Orange Free State) on 3 November 1879. He settled in Kroonstad, where he remained until his death 28 years later. For most of that period (1881-1901) he was district surgeon. During the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) he was in charge of the Boer Ambulance Corps in the vicinity of Ladysmith for six months. From 1882 to about 1903 he was a member of the Town Council, a position he gave up to become medical officer of health for the municipality. By 1898 he was a member of the (second) South African Medical Association. In 1884 he married Fanny Turton Archbell, with whom he had five daughters.

Symonds was an enthusiastic naturalist and a most hospitable host who delighted in showing his guests the bird life along the Vals River at Kroonstad. He was a friend and correspondent of the British ornithologist J.H. Gurney and a corresponding member of the British Ornithologists' Union and the Zoological Gardens of London. In 1887 he published "Notes on a collection of birds from Kroonstad, in the Orange Free State", including notes by Gurney, in The Ibis. That same year he contributed "Notes on some species of South African snakes" to the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. Over the years he presented many specimens to the Transvaal Museum (now the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History) and to its zoological gardens. Later he was an active member of the South African Ornithologists' Union (founded in 1904), contributing three articles to its Journal: "Notes on some migratory visitants to Kroonstad, Orange River Colony" (1906, Vol. 2, pp. 24-27), "Notes on some members of the family Ploceidae occurring in the Kroonstad district" (1906, Vol. 2, pp. 27-29), and "Some additional notes on the birds of the Kroonstad district" (1907, Vol. 3, pp. 42-51). At the Union's annual meeting during the first half of 1907 he was elected joint vice-president. He was also an early member of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Symonds died of a stroke after a short illness, having attended to his practice until the day before his death.

List of sources:

Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette, 9 January 1885, pp. 41-45: List of medical practitioners in the Cape Colony...

Dr Edmond Symonds. Geni. Retrieved on 6 January 2021 from https://www.geni.com/people/Dr-Edmond-Symonds/6000000023005492133

FamilySearch: Edmond Symonds. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/9VGW-FKP/dr-edmond-symonds-1854-1907

Medical and pharmacy register of the Cape of Good Hope, 1893, 1907.

Men of the times: Old colonists of the Cape Colony and Orange River Colony. Johannesburg: Transvaal Publishing Company, 1906.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Symonds, Edmund / Symonds, E.

Obituary: Dr Edmond Symonds. Journal of the South African Ornithologists' Union, 1907, Vol. 3(1), pp. 167-168.

Obituary: Edmond Symonds, MRCS, LRCP. South African Medical Record, 1907, Vol. 5, p. 125.

Royal Society of London. Catalogue of scientific papers [1800-1900]. London: Royal Society, 1867-1925.

South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Report, 1903, 1905/6: Lists of members.

South African medical directory for 1897. Cape Town: Cape Times, 1897.

South African Medical Journal (series 2), January 1898, Vol. 5, pp. 240-242: South African Medical Association (list of members).

South African Ornithologists' Union. Journal, 1906-1907, Vol. 2-3.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2026-01-09 09:34:02