Biography

Irish linguist, diplomat and politician from Clydagh, Galway and the son of Sir George Leonard Staunton. He accompanied his father on Britain's first Embassy mission to China (1792-1794), serving as page boy to Lord Macartney. During the voyage the young boy passed the time by learning Chinese from the Jesuits that accompanied the Embassy and thus was the only British member of the Embassy who could speak to the Emperor in Chinese. Delighted with this bright 12 year old child, the Emperor gave him a yellow embroidered purse from his own belt, and a green jade sceptre, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Staunton's aptitude for Chinese led to his appointment as head of the East India Company's factory at Canton (1798-1817) and he spent much of that time living in China. He was accepted as a Fellow of the Royal Society by the age of 22 and shared interests in both natural history and porcelain with the president, Joseph Banks. By the time of Britain's second Embassy mission to China (1816-1817), led by Lord Amherst, Staunton was a ranking member of the team and deputy to Lord Amherst. He returned to England and settled in Hampshire on the estate of Leigh Park and sat as a member of parliament for south Hampshire constituencies (1818-1854).

Most of the botanical specimens from this second mission were collected by Clarke Abel, but much of this collection was lost on the return voyage in the sinking of the HMS Alceste on 18 February 1817. Staunton had returned earlier in another ship and held a small duplicate collection, which was the only surviving material from the voyage. These specimens were returned to Clarke Abel after the survivors of the shipwreck had been rescued and Abel presented them to Joseph Banks in London. The material was subsequently bequeathed to Robert Brown in 1820 and donated to BM in 1827. Whether any surviving material is directly attributable to G.T. Staunton as a collector is not known at present.