Thomas Hincks was certainly one of the most gifted, successful, and influential hydrozoan systematists. His works were outstanding and decades ahead of most of his contemporaries. Even today, after more than 140 years, they surprise by their accuracy and they remain very useful.

For more information see the biography provided by Calder (2009), from which also the following abstract was taken.

Thomas Hincks was born 15 July 1818 in Exeter, England. He attended Manchester New College, York, from 1833 to 1839, and received a B.A. from the University of London in 1840. In 1839 he commenced a 30-year career as a cleric, and served with distinction at Unitarian chapels in Ireland and England. Meanwhile, he enthusiastically pursued interests in natural history. A breakdown in his health and permanent voice impairment during 1867–68 while at Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, forced him reluctantly to resign from active ministry in 1869. He moved to Taunton and later to Clifton, and devoted much of the rest of his life to natural history. Hincks was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1872 for noteworthy contributions to natural history. Foremost among his publications in science were a history of the British hydroid zoophytes (1868) and a history of the British marine Polyzoa (1880). Hincks named 24 families, 52 genera and 360 species and subspecies of invertebrates, mostly Bryozoa and Hydrozoa. Hincks died 25 January 1899 in Clifton, and was buried in Leeds. His important bryozoan and hydroid collections are in the Natural History Museum, London. At least six genera and 13 species of invertebrates are named in his honour.


source:

Calder, D. 2009. The Reverend Thomas Hincks FRS (1818–1899): taxonomist of Bryozoa and Hydrozoa. Archives of natural history 36 (2): 189–217.