Herbert Graham Cannon, 1897-1963

Herbert Graham Cannon, Beyer Professor in the University of Manchester, died in a London hospital on 6 January 1963, at the age of sixty-five. He had been for more than forty years a leading figure among British zoologists. An inspiring teacher, a vigorous and controversial writer, he had contributed greatly to the advancement of zoology by his researches on arthropodan animals and, in particular, by his interpretations of the embryology of the Crustacea and of the nature of their feeding mechanisms. Graham Cannon was born on 14 April 1897, in Wimbledon, the third child of a family of four. His father David William Cannon was a compositor in the firm of Eyre and Spottiswoode and was for several years engaged in the preparation of maps and papers for the India Office; his mother was the daughter of a Charles Graham who owned and drove one of the first horse-buses to run on a regular service in south London. David Cannon’s weekly wage was little enough for the needs of a largish family and when Graham was about five years old the parents moved from Wimbledon to a house in Brixton near to which there were some good free schools. Cannon was sent for a time to the local council school and, on winning a scholarship, he moved on to Wilson’s Grammar School in Camberwell where he followed the normal grammar school curriculum specializing, in the higher forms, in science subjects in preparation for entrance to a University. He took little part in field games, but he was interested in chess and rifle shooting. He also enjoyed making things, and early developed a facility for drawing and sketching. As evidence of this I have been told that one of his schoolmasters, the father of a present Professor of Zoology, thought sufficiently well of the young Cannon’s drawings to keep them to the day of his retirement as examples of the work of his more talented pupils. But Graham’s main love was music. He had a good singing voice and was for several years a choirboy at the local church where, on special occasions such as the Christmas and Easter services, he and his brother would almost invariably be called upon to take the solo parts.