page_title: William Frederick Purcell
section_title: Early life and education
hierarchical_section_title: William Frederick Purcell / Early life and education
caption_attribution_description: English: A collage of beetles made from images uploaded by User:Fir0002.Español: Colección de coleópteros. Desde arriba a la izquierda, en forma circular: Lamprima aurata hembra, Dynastinae (Megasoma sp.), gorgojo Rhinotia hemistictus), Chondropyga dorsalis y Amblytelus sp.
context_page_description: William Frederick Purcell FRSSAf was an English-born South African arachnologist and zoologist. He is regarded as being the founder of modern araneology in South Africa.
context_section_description: Purcell was born in London, England to Dr Walter P.J. Purcell of Waterford, Ireland, and his wife Sophia W.J. Hertzog of Cape Town. In 1868 the family moved to South Africa and settled in Cape Town. He spent most of his childhood on the farm Bergvliet, which was owned by his uncle W.F. Hertzog.
  From 1881, Purcell studied at South African College, Cape Town, matriculated through the University of the Cape of Good Hope (UCGH) in 1884 and received a BA (with Honours) in mathematics and natural science in 1887 from UCGH. In 1885 and 1887 he provided the South African Museum with samples of coleoptera obtained at Bergvliet and Prieska.
  Purcell continued his education in Germany with a focus on the internal structure of arachnids. In 1894 Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitaet awarded him the degree DPhil with a thesis entitled "Ueber den Bau der Phalangidenaugen" ("On the structure of the eyes in the Phalangida").
  Purcell returned to South Africa in 1895 and donated his collections of South African Coleoptera (Families Cicindelidae and Carabidae), and European Coleoptera and Rhynchota, to the South African Museum.
caption: Collection of coleoptera (beetles)
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