Alfred the Gorilla
Alfred died on 10 March 1948. The press at the time speculated that ‘his pet hate got him in the end’, linking Alfred's dislike of aeroplanes with the passage of one over the zoo shortly before his death. The actual cause of his demise was tuberculosis which he contracted a year before and despite his keepers best efforts, he had been unable to recover. His death was mourned by many of the regular visitors to the zoo, some of whom were even inspired to compose poems in his honour.
Alfred von Arneth
Alfred Ritter von Arneth (10 July 181930 July 1897) was an Austrian historian. His principal scholarly work is a ten-volume biography of the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa, first published in installments from 1863 to 1879 and still regarded as the standard work on the subject. Born at Vienna, he was the son of Joseph Calasanza von Arneth (1791–1863), a well-known historian and archaeologist, who wrote a history of the Austrian Empire (Vienna, 1827) and several works on numismatics and brother of Doctor Franz Hektor von Arneth (1818–1907).