John Graham Kerr

Sir John Graham Kerr (18 September 1869 – 21 April 1957) was a Scottish embryologist and Unionist Member of Parliament (MP). He is best known for his studies of the embryology of lungfishes.

Born in Hertfordshire to Scottish parents, Kerr was educated at the the Royal High School, Edinburgh, and at the University of Edinburgh, but interrupted his medical studies to join an Argentinian expedition to study the natural history of the Pilcomayo. On his return, he studied natural sciences at the University of Cambridge, graduating with first class honours in 1896. The Argentinian expedition had ended with the loss of most of the collections, but after graduating he mounted an expedition to the Gran Chaco, bringing home a large collection of material related to the South American lungfish, lepidosiren paradoxa.

After a spell as a Christ's College, Cambridge, he was appointed in 1902 as Regius Professor of Natural History in the University of Glasgow (the post was renamed the following year as Regius Professor of Zoology). He was particularly interested in teaching medical students, and published widely. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1909, and received LLDs from the University of Edinburgh in 1935 and of University of St Andrews in 1950.

Kerr made early contributions to ship camouflage, advocating disruptive or dazzle camouflage (he called it parti-coloring), and openly supporting the controversial camouflage claims of American artist Abbott Handerson Thayer.

He was elected as MP for the Combined Scottish Universities at a by-election in 1935 after the MP and novelist John Buchan resigned his seat when he was appointed as Governor General of Canada. After his election to Parlaiment, Kerr resigned his professorship, and moved to Hertfordshire. He held the seat until the university constituencies were abolished for the 1950 general election, serving for a time as for a time as chairman of the parliamentary scientific committee. He was knighted in the King's Birthday Honours in 1939

Publications

 * A Textbook of Embryology with the Exception of Mammalia (1914–19)
 * Zoology for Medical Students (1921)
 * Evolution (1926)