Henry Nottidge Moseley was born in Wandsworth, London on 14 November 1844 and died in 10 November 1891. He was educated at Harrow and Exeter College, Oxford (Arts) and then at the Honour School of Natural Science at Oxford (medicine). Moseley won a first-class degree in natural sciences in 1868 and after a four-year dalliance with a career in medicine was chosen for the Challenger expedition, participating as a naturalist in the HMS Challenger expedition of 1872 to 1876, also on other expeditions to Ceylon, California and Oregon.

Moseley wrote a book following the Challenger expedition ‘Notes by a Naturalist on HMS Challenger’ where he describes all the areas the ship visited – the birds, botany, landscape and culture. Although the voyage’s primary aim was science under the sea, there was also attention paid to the land and the people the crew met. Moseley wrote the Report on Certain Hydroid, Alcyonarian, and madreporian corals.

Following the Challenger expedition, Moseley was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1879 and in 1881 became involved in the negotiations for the donation of the Pitt Rivers Collection which would form the Pitt Rivers Museum from 1884. Moseley is commemorated in the scientific name of the species, northern rockhopper penguin, Eudyptes moseleyi.

National Museums Scotland have Challenger material donated by Moseley.