John Stanley Gardiner (1872–1946) was a British zoologist.

Stanley, as he was known, was the younger son of John Jephson Gardiner and Sarah McTier. He was born inJordanstown (Belfast) in 1872 – two years after his brother Arthur. Jephson was a member of the Anglican clergy and, at the time of his marriage to Sarah in 1868, was chaplain toLord Dufferin atCarrickfergus (near Belfast). Stanley's mother died five months after he was born and in 1874, he and Arthur were taken by their father to England. They initially lived inMarshfield, Wiltshire, with Jephson having the position of Curate there. In 1876, Jephson and his two sons moved toWonersh, nearGuildford, Surrey. There Arthur and Stanley were pupils at aboarding school at 108 High Street, Guildford.^[1]

Stanley attendedMarlborough College from January 1885 until July 1890. While there "his critical thinking was shaped by the science masters and where he was a great supporter of the school's Natural History Society".^[2] Stanley won an exhibition toGonville and Caius College, Cambridge and became a member of the college in 1891. He studied zoology and graduated in 1894 with a first class degree in Natural Sciences. He playedhockey for Cambridge in 1894.

The period from 1896 to 1909 was spent by Stanley in doing field work in coral research. He spend considerable time in remote locations in the Indian Ocean as a member of three expeditions. He was particularly fascinated bymarine biology and in 1896, aged 26, he joined theRoyal Society Expedition toFunafuti in theEllice Islands in thePacific. This must have been a very formative experience for thereafter he devoted much of his research to thescleractiniancorals and the environmental factors influencing their distribution. This research encompassed not only the identification and taxonomy of corals but also studies of their growth rates and feeding biology. Much of his subsequent work was carried out in the Indian Ocean, first of all in theLaccadives andMaldives and then through expeditions to theChagos Archipelago,Seychelles,Amirantes,Coetivy,Cargados Carajos,Farquhar,Providence,St. Pierre andMauritius. He was certainly an early pioneer incoral reef research not only in terms of his careful observational work on Indian Ocean reefs, many of whom have not been revisited by modern scientists, but also in the wide range of research he undertook into thebiology of corals.

A significant element of his legacy to coral reef research lies in his contribution to theGreat Barrier Reef Expedition of 1928–29. This was a major expedition, led by a British scientist, C.M. Yonge, appointed and funded as a result of Gardiner's initiatives. The expedition proved to be a turning point in coral reef science with far reaching results that are still cited by reef workers in their publications today. Many of the key questions asked by the expedition were based on Gardiner's initial research in the Indian Ocean.

Gardiner becameProfessor of Zoology inCambridge in 1909 and retained this position until 1937. During this period recognition of Gardiner's contribution to marine science, and coral reef research in particular, was evident through his presentation of theMurchison Award of theRoyal Geographical Society in 1902;^[3] his admission to theFellowship of the Royal Society in 1908; his award of theAgassiz Medal of the American National Academy of Science in 1929, theLinnean Medal of theLinnean Society of London in 1936 and theDarwin Medal of the Royal Society in 1944. A listing of some of his major publications can be found in his obituary byForster Cooper as well as in the article detailing his legacy to reef science referenced below.

Stanley married Rachel Florence Denning on 12 September 1900. They were married at All Souls' Church inMarylebone, London. Sadly, Rachel died in March 1901 from amiscarriage ("abortus" on her death certificate).

Stanley remarried in 1909. His wife wasEdith Gertrude Willcock. She attendedNewnham College, Cambridge from 1900 to 1904 and received a doctoral degree fromTrinity College Dublin. (Apparently at the time, women could not receive doctoral degrees in England).

Edith was a chemist and did some pioneering research work withradium, and into the importance ofamino acids in diet.

Edith and Stanley had two daughters – Nancy Emma Gardiner born in 1911 and Joyce Critchley Gardiner born in 1913. Their daughter Nancy died young at the age of 45. She was married but had no children. Joyce, an accomplished painter, married and had three children.

Stanley and Edith lived at Bredon House,Cambridge. In 1965, this became the administrative offices for the newly foundedWolfson College. Stanley died in 1946 and Edith followed him in 1953.

Stanley Gardiner is commemorated in the scientific names of two species of lizards,

• The Rotuman forest gecko,Lepidodactylus gardineriBoulenger, 1897

and

• Gardiner's burrowing skink,Pamelaescincus gardineri,(Boulenger, 1909)^[4]
• Gardiner's Seychelles frog,Sechellophryne gardineri(Boulenger, 1911),^[5]
• Plectranthias gardineri(Regan, 1908) is a species offish in the familySerranidae occurring in the WesternIndian Ocean.^[6]

and in

• The sea slugTubulophilinopsis gardineri(Eliot, 1903).^[7]

• Gardiner, J. S., (1898), 'On the perforate corals collected by the author in the South Pacific', Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 257–276.
• Gardiner, J. S., (1898), 'The coral reefs of Funafuti, Rotuma and Fiji together with some notes on the structure and formation of coral reefs in general', Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 9, 417–503.
• Gardiner, J. S., (1903–1906) The fauna and geography of the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes, being the account of the work carried on and of collections made by an expedition during the years 1899 and 1900 (2 volumes), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
• Gardiner, J. S., (1901), 'On the rate of growth of some corals from Fiji', Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 11, 214–219.
• Gardiner, J. S., (1906), 'The Indian Ocean', Geog. J. 28, 313–332.
• Gardiner, J. S., (1907–36), 'Reports of the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean in 1905', Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. (2) 12–19.
• Gardiner, J. S., (1931) Coral reefs and atolls, Macmillan, London, UK.
• Gardiner, J. S., (1931), 'Photosynthesis and solution in formation of coral reefs', Nature 127, 857–858.
• Gardiner, J. S., (1936) 'The reefs of the western Indian Ocean. I. Chagos Archipelago. II. The Mascarene Region', Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. (2) 19, 393–436.

• Forster-Cooper, C. (1945–48) 'John Stanley Gardiner' Obit. Not. Fell. R. Soc. 5:541–553
• Foster, W. & McPhee, P.,Professors and Portraits, Zoology 150 years 1866–2016', University of Cambridge

• Brown BE (2007)."The legacy of Professor John Stanley Gardiner FRS to reef science".Notes Rec. R. Soc.61: 207–217.
• Janus: Personal papers of John Stanley Gardiner at janus.lib.cam.ac.uk

• 1872 births
• 1946 deaths
• Scientists from Belfast
• Fellows of the Royal Society
• People educated at Marlborough College
• Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
• Professors of Zoology (Cambridge, 1866)
• British zoologists
• Linnean Medallists

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• EngvarB from June 2017
• Use dmy dates from June 2017