Introduction

Biography

Oswald was the son of Ro­bert Mos­ley Feil­den, rec­tor of Beb­ing­ton, Che­shire.

He was edu­cat­ed at Eton and Christ Church, Ox­ford (gra­du­at­ed 1859).

In 1861, he was or­dained at St. Asaph, and be­came as­sist­ant cur­ate at Whit­ting­ton, Shrop­shire, un­der Will­iam How. In 1865, he was ap­point­ed per­pe­tu­al cur­ate of Welsh Frank­ton, Shrop­shire.

In ad­di­tion to pas­tor­al du­ties, Feild­en was a keen bo­ta­nist, and was pre­si­dent of the Of­fa Field Club (a lo­cal bo­ta­ni­cal group formed in 1888), and was re­spon­si­ble for much of the da­ta and po­pu­la­tion work on wild flow­ers in the lo­ca­li­ty.

His col­league Tho­mas Di­amond pub­lished Flo­ra of Os­wes­try, their ac­count of the bo­ta­ny of the area, in 1891, though it seems Feil­den was the bo­tan­ist while Dia­mond was the col­lat­or.

The book in­clud­ed the first re­cord­ing of Mount­ain Ev­er­last­ing (An­ten­na­ria di­oi­ca) on Llan­ymy­nech Hill, Ju­ni­per (Ju­ni­per­us com­mu­nis) at Carregy­big and Creep­ing Wil­low (Sa­lix re­pens) at Glo­pa.