In memoriam Professor Dr. Lieven Ferdinand de Beaufort

After a short illness, Professor de Beaufort died at the age of 89 years at Amersfoort, near his country-home “De Hooge Kley” at Leusden. Born on the 23rd March 1879 at Leusden, Lieven Ferdinand de Beaufort was the son of the historian and statesman W. H. de Beaufort. Growing up on the beautiful estate “Den Treek”, the country-seat of his father, Lieven Ferdinand de Beaufort showed a great interest in nature from his earliest years. After completing his time at the Secondary School (Hogere Burger School) at Amersfoort and gaining additional qualifications in Latin and Greek, in 1899 he became a student at the University of Amsterdam where Max Weber and C. Ph. Sluiter taught zoology, Hugo de Vries and Ed. Verschaffelt botany, and Eug. Dubois geology and palaeontology. Among his fellow students were Ihle, de Bussy, Weevers, Versluys, Cramer, van Kampen, Docters van Leeuwen, and Johanna Westerdijk, all of them to be wellknown in biological sciences in later years.