Thomas McIlwraith (ornithologist)

The outdoor natural history organization McIlwraith Field Naturalists of London, Ontario was named in his honour in 1902.

In October 1853 he married Mary, daughter of Baillie Hugh Park and moved to Hamilton, Canada the next month.

He worked in the Hamilton Gas Light Company until 1871 after which he owned the commercial wharf and managed the coal transport business.

Along with William Edwin Saunders and Montague Chamberlain he was one of the three Canadian founding members of the American Ornithologists' Union established in New York.

In 1890 McIlwraith was invited to work on a bird book for the country by the Geological Survey of Canada but the project was aborted.