John George Children

John George Children FRS FRSE FLS PRES DL was a British chemist, mineralogist and zoologist. Children established a chemical laboratory at his father's home Ferox Hall and conducted experiments into galvanic cells. Following Children's father's bankruptcy and sale of the family estates in 1812 he was forced to seek employment, and in 1816 following a failed attempt at establishing a gunpowder business with his friend Sir Humphry Davy he became the assistant librarian of the department of antiquities at the British Museum in London. In 1822 Davy helped him secure a controversial appointment to the post of assistant keeper of the Natural History Department of the British Museum. He later served as Keeper of the Zoological Department following the division of the Natural History Department into three distinct departments in 1837, he remained in this post until his retirement from the museum in 1840. Along with Davy he built a large galvanic cell, assisted him in experiments and invented a method to extract silver from ore without the need for mercury. Children was also the founding president of the Royal Entomological Society. His daughter Anna Atkins became a pioneer of botanical photography.