Biographical dictionary

Lived in Horsham and was responsible for forming the Friends of Warnham Local Nature Reserve of which he was the first Chairman. Started with a general interest in natural history but in later life turned to insects and particularly beetles. He started to put together a short illustrated booklet about the beetles in the Warnham area which was completed after his death by Neil Henry. (Information from Peter Hodge). (MD 1/22)

Born in Melton Mowbray, the only son of Walter J.Hincks, the official of a Life Insurance Company who was also a talented artist. Moved to Leeds in 1918. Entered the Leeds College of Pharmacy becoming M.P.S. at the age of 21 and then joined C.F.Thackeray and Co. a large firm of manufacturing chemists. After being promoted to Manager of one of the divisions, he left in 1947 to take up the post of Keeper of Entomology at the Manchester Museum. While at the museum he was awarded a Ph.D. by the university (1954). When still in post he became ill and died at Heaton Norris, Stockport. He was cremated at Lawnswood Crematorium, Leeds. He married Jessie, daughter of Dr R.H.Hargrave, a musician, in 1932.

Hincks was an outstanding entomologist achieving distinction in several orders particularly Dermaptera, on which he wrote two and half volumes of a four volume World Catalogue. He is best known amongst British entomologists, however, for the Check List of British Insects which he wrote in collaboration with George S. Kloet, and published in 1945. The Coleoptera were one of Hincks's earliest interests and he showed specimens from the Leeds area at a meeting of the Entomological Section of the Yorkshire Naturalists Union in October 1920 (Naturalist, 48, 1921, p.30). Kloet, in his obituary in Ent., 94, 1961, pp.181-184, wrote: 'Always interested in insects, Douglas joined the Leeds Naturalists' Club and devoted his spare time as a boy to the study of all Orders ... the Coleoptera in particular were rapidly mastered. Developing a close friendship with John R. Dibb, another enthusiast of his own age, a decision was made to examine some little known group of beetles and test their ability to undertake original research. The Passalidae were chosen and letters were sent all over the world asking for material. In a remarkably short time Hincks and Dibb issued a fine series of papers which established them as the world authorities on this hitherto little known family. In the meantime they amassed one of the largest private collections of foreign beetles in Great Britain (mainly by purchase) and successfully determined a large proportion of the species in spite of the limited library facilities at their disposal. A large section of these vast collections was presented to Leeds Museum during the war and only a few weeks later was largely destroyed during an air raid.

Simultaneously Hincks was mastering the Orthoptera... investigating difficult groups like the Cassidae and Halticine beetles and becoming ever more attracted by the Hymenoptera Parasitica...'. T.B. Kitchen, a friend from boyhood, in an obituary of Hincks in EMM, 98, 1962, 22-23, noted that Hincks' particular interest in foreign beetles was stimulated by E.C. Horrell of Leeds (see below), whose own foreign collection Hincks later acquired. By the time Hincks joined the Manchester Museum he had re-organised the collections of the York Museum, making donations and being instrumental in their obtaining several major Coleoptera collections including that of Willoughby Ellis and a collection alongside J.R. Dibb, become interested in Mycology - his wife shared his enthusiasm for this subject - and started in earnest his work on Dermaptera. Later, he carried out with Reginald Wagstaffe important surveys of Spurn Head, Malham Tarn and Freshfield, and fought for the preservation of Askham Bog. He was also Editor of the Catalogus Coleoptorum and of J.G.Arrow's book Horned Beetles.

Hincks' collections of insects passed to the Manchester Museum after his death. Johnson (2004),11 records that the beetles amounted to c.6,000 specimens and included specimens from E.C.Horrell and J.R.Dibb. The Horrell specimens, unlike Dibb’s, lack data and are dirty. The collection is especially strong in Chrysomelidae. Hinck’s records were added to the card index of Lancashire and Cheshire Coleoptera and there are other records in the museum files. Pedersen (2002), 126,138,139 lists correspondence with C.J.Wainwright in the RESL. (MD 5/03, 11/09)

Hincks was an active member of many societies being at different times President of the Yorkshire and the North Western Naturalists Unions, Vice President of the RES, President of the Society for British Entomology, and a Council member of the British Trust for Entomology Ltd.. Apart from the obituaries mentioned above there are others in Ent., 94, 1961, p.184 (by G.C.Varley); Naturalist, Hull, 880, 1962, 31-32 (by T.B.Kitchen); Proc.RESL. (C) 26, 1962, 52 (by G.C.Varley) and Coleopt. Cat. (Supplement) 35(3), 1964, iii-iv (by W.D.Steele, with portrait). There is also an entry in Wikipedia by Adam Parker (MD 5/03, 12/21)